I’m sitting here tweaking my comment and archive pages and waiting for the site to rebuild and ran across Jakob Nielsen’s latest Alertbox column, “Weblog Usability: The top ten design mistakes” and I thought I’d take a look and see how this site stacks up.
O.K., here we go:
1. No Author Biographies
I have a bio, but it is mostly “corporate speak”. So I’ll give myself a “needs to improve” on this one.
2. No Author Photo
No photos of me on this site. I don’t need to scare off the handful of readers I may have.
3. Nondescript Posting Titles
I rarely post (see #7 below) and when I do I’m not real creative when it comes to titles. I’ll take a “needs to improve” on this one.
4. Links Don’t Say Where They Go
Click ’em and find out. Or maybe we can resurect the tag and make it more obvious.
5. Classic Hits Are Buried
I made one post about buying a Dyson vacum cleaner and because I mispelled “vacuum” I get a ton of hits from Google. Maybe I should put it permanently on my home page and sell ads.
6. The Calendar is the Only Navigation
No calendar on this blog. I got rid of it almost two design revisions ago and implemented a search tool. Who needs a calendar when you have Google?
7. Irregular Publishing Frequency
Guilty, guilty, guilty…
8. Mixing Topics
Guilty on this one as well. I’ve toyed with various topics but from the start this blog was meant to be a personal information repository and I never intended for it to be read by many folks. I restored a 1960’s Schwinn bike for my daughter this summer so you’ll see several bicycle related links I posted to del.icio.us. I’m interested in the photo industry and photo history, so occasionally you’ll see posts related to those topics. Maybe I should start a Dyson blog and sell ads…
9. Forgetting That You Write for Your Future Boss
I don’t post much that is personal, so no real worries on this point.
10. Having a Domain Name Owned by a Weblog Service
I pass this one – I have had my own domain for a few years now and I like having a development “sandbox”.