Whassup? Enlighten us!

We need your special brand of knowledge,
attitude, and leadership out here.

Wirte something, Goddammit!!!

Rick

I can’t even get my posts up there…and get rid of the “goofy calendar that does nothing”, and a photo…

Thank you, Raffi.You’re right I need tech support, more like life support for my ailing blog.

And I appreciate that you came up with this great idea! Now, how ti implement it?

What do you do, Raffi? And how do you know Amy?

Lois, Stick with Wordpress. It’s great. You may need “tech support” to edit major layout items, but the available widgets will save lots of programming time in the long run. I’m happy to assist.

You’re welcome to use my “heartbreak hotel” comment.

I have one thing to add for Lois –

Test, test, test. Everytime I test things on my site, I learn what works and what doesn’t. It is often surprising…

I’m looking forward to seeing the changes.

Yes, I was at VCS. I left in 2005 to start my own business. I specialize in web design and redesign. Before I met Amy I was skeptical about design for the web (like many designers for print then and now). Everything Amy said made sense and connected to what I already knew about publication and direct marketing. Thus, I’ve embraced designing for the web, basing my work on what works rather than what is pretty.

This isn’t to say I can’t make a website follow best practices for getting clicks and also be pretty, just that I know how to mix the two based on the brand I’m designing for.

Now I hang my head and admit that busy designing websites, I haven’t designed my own! However, I’m finally working on it and plan to have my site up and running by the end of the year. I’ll let you and Amy know when it goes live. Until then I can be contacted at LmnCreate at myfairpoint.net.

If you want to see a couple of sites I’ve designed, visit:
benningtonpotters.com
zicandchacha.com
greatgardenplants.com

Meanwhile, I’ll look forward to your next post.

“If rag right text is too wide in relation to type size, it becomes hard for our eyes to find the next line of text”….now that makes perfect sense! It even runs true for a direct mail piece. Amazing factoid right there.

Thank you Leslie! I think I remember your name from Vermont Country Store.

What are you doing now? Do you freelance?

As a designer who started out on the editorial side of magazines before moving into direct marketing via catalogs and the web, I find the rules hold pretty true between media. All media is driven by the need to get the viewer’s attention and keep it.

I thought about this as I started reading Lois’s blog; the look of the blog isn’t expressing the liveliness of the content. So my crit is basically this: the site needs be more enticing by offering more ways in and it needs to be graphically more busy (i.e. lively).

SO does this sound like a contradiction? I’d simplify the Masthead. I’d redesign it using the most important of those words currently flying around up there, making sure the blog name takes center stage. Remember that three second rule? Right now, there’s a fight going on between all of those words that takes way more than three seconds to figure out. And, as much as I’m betting all of that red captures Lois’s personality, it might be too much of a good thing up there at the top. It kind of vacuums up all the energy on the page–it’s all up there and no place else. Let’s sprinkle some of that red around the page to send us roving.

2. I agree with Deborah Ellis, add a photo of Lois above the scroll.

3. About more ways in: the web, more than any other media offers multiple points of entry. To that end, it would be great to use photo captions (and another image above the scroll with a caption). Captions can make me interested enough to dig into the heavier content. Conversely, a lot of gray text is daunting and makes me think maybe I’ll wait and read it later.

Other graphic elements that would add more life to the page:

• Subheadings. These also help us find our way into the text. They need to be in color to fight the gray problem. Another reason for subheading–we are all really busy (reading all kinds of social media) so we need help getting the point fast. Subheads guide us to the big ideas.

• Bullet lists or number lists. Another great way to help those of us with no time or short attention spans find key points.

• Make the site busier looking. There is busy and there is messy. Messy is when there are random font changes, too many color fields behind the copy and flash or animation that doesn’t add to the conversation. Busy is when a blog has lots of easy to grab content with graphics that invite us to look around. Busy makes us want to dive in.

Lois’s blog is full of dive in content, so it should look as smart and lively as it actually is.

Finally, I’d make the far right column a little wider while leaving the center column alone. There is an epidemic of bad text width online. You may not notice it unless it is extreme, but the ratio between text width and text size will influence whether we continue reading or not. Readability studies show that if rag right text is too wide in relation to type size, it becomes hard for our eyes to find the next line of text.

The width-to-text-size is okay in Lois’s center column. I’m suggesting a bit more width for column three, allowing for more play in design and content there. Because the top of the right column is prime real estate, it is the perfect place to put more attention grabbing stuff.

Thank you Lois for allowing us the freedom to have this great conversation.