As you may have realised, I’ve recently given Teenius a bit of a makeover with a new theme, so I thought it was only fitting that I wrote a series about blog design. This is the first part of the series and is all about what makes a good blog design.
Why is a design so important?
Firstly, lets cover the basics. A design is one of the most important parts of any blog as (other than the domain), it’ll be the first thing someone sees when they come to your site. A good design will mean a good first impression. Make a bad first impression, and it’s unlikely anyone will stick around on your site for very long. Your design should also be a very important part of your branding process and will probably be the thing people remember about your site, so you really need to make it good.
What makes a good design?
If I’m honest, there’s no right or wrong answer. Everything sees “good” in a different way and it IS all down to personal opinion, but these are the points that I personally think makes a good design:
- Clean – You may have heard the word “clean” being spoken about a lot in design, but, honestly, what does cleanliness have to do with design? Well, when people talk about a clean looking website, they’re actually saying that it’s not crowded. Keep it simple!
- Unique – A unique theme is always a good one because it makes it easier for people to remember you by. Not only that, but if you click onto a blog and see it has the same theme as thousands of other websites out there, you’re unlikely to give it a second glance.
- Prioritise – When you’re designing a theme, you should remember to actually make the important parts of the blog stand out. For me, the option to subscribe is important, so that’s bold (bright orange).
- Content – Following on from the previous point, you should make it so that your content is the main focus. The writing on your blog is what people visit for, so make sure your design presents it in an attractive, easy to read way.
- Colours – Whilst it’s great to be really “out there” and unique, I think it is very important to actually make the colours go well together. Black/white/grey will go well with pretty much any colour, so I recommend using those somewhere in your design, but it really is a personal choice.
- Personality – Whilst it may sound silly, personality can (and should) be put into a design. A design is something personal, so by really putting your own choice into it, you’ll find the design usually gets better.
These are, in my opinion, the most important six things you should consider when designing your blog. Every blog has different needs and it’s really important to remember that when you’re designing a theme (or having one designed for you).
Over to you…
What do you think makes a good blog design? Was your blog designed with the above points in mind? Please feel free to leave a comment to discuss anything about this article. If you liked the post, please click one of the little icons below to share it around.
Stay tuned for part two, which will be posted in a short while. I’ve got something special planned!
I think the most important point of a theme is navigation. Can it take you to where you want to go. For the blogger that means will it lead to more content, subscriptions, sales, revenue, pageviews, etc. For the reader, can I easily find what I am looking for? If a theme’s design can do that then I think there are not to many other things to worry about.
Some of the most popular blog’s on the internet are really, really simple. But they always get the job done.
Seth W’s last blog post..Organize Your Post Ideas
Ah, that’s a very good point. I also like your point about simple themes and website designs. I really agree with this, but I think that other factors should come higher than simplicity.
Two more points I would like to add is:
Lightness – If your blog has a dark colored theme, I suggest you change it to a lighter colored one, unless it matches your blog. This is because a poll on Problogger shows that the majority of readers like light themes.
The speed of the load time of the theme – If your theme doesn’t load fast, some of your visitors will fade away, because they are impatient. So, make your sure theme is easy to load. I think 5 seconds is a good load time. You can test how fast your blog loads using pingdom’s full page tester.
From my test,
- Teenius.com – 4.5 seconds
- GlosonBlog.com – 5.4 seconds (You beat me!)
- Google.com – 0.5 seconds (How cool is that?)
I like how wordpress.org ‘prioritizes’ their “Download” link by coloring it red, to stand out in their grey background
I bet no one will miss it.
By the way, you provide great rocking tips!
Gloson’s last blog post..7 Things You Can Do To Improve Your Blog (Most of which you haven’t done)
Thanks for the great comment (as always!) Gloson!
Yeah, loading time is a big thing and I was going to include it, but I thought it was better to actually focus on the visual aspect of the blog design first. 
The Wordpress point is a good one. The fact that (a) it’s in a big red box, and (b) it’s free, will make people more willing to download it, especially when it’s as popular as it now is.
BTW, that pingdom thing is weird… I got 3.4 seconds for Teenius before, then just now I got 3.9
Well, pingdom is not thaaat accurate. I think it depends on the server. But I still find it a useful tool for webmasters.
And now, I got 4.9 for Teenius
Gloson’s last blog post..Why Do You Unsubscribe from a Blog?
Are you guys using WP Super Cache or any caching plugin on your sites? Mine took around 6.8 seconds to load.
Nope, I don’t. Should I?
Hahah no, it’s just that I was amazed when I saw how fast your site loads! :O So, I was wondering if you were using a caching plugin such as WP Super Cache.
Whenever I design a blog I always make sure it looks attractive so that users will continue coming back and visiting my website. Great post!
Marcell’s last blog post..School Is Just a Waste of Time
Good post Simon. Its obvious that even design plays a great role in deciding the blog’s success. If a visitor gets frustrated by the design it self then there is no chance of him reading the blog.
Harish | Blogging Kid’s last blog post..List Bulding – Why And How ?
Agreed. I think a lot of people will design a cool theme but actually forget WHY they have the theme. The aim of any theme should be to actually showcase the content so that it looks more appealing to read.
Awesome post, very enjoyable to read. Personally I never really design themes, but it is something I’m looking into doing over the summer, so I’ll refer back to this post when I do
Looking forward to the other parts of the series btw
Yeah, that’ll be a cool summer project
I’m hoping to learn to code as I’ve got around 3 months off 
And, regarding the other parts of the series… I’ve got some pretty cool stuff lined up
Why does personality sound silly? If your blog design has no personality, then I’m not going to visit it. A design is part of your branding, your image, and yeah, your personality.
When I design a theme I focus on content, then build the look itself around what I want the blog to say.
Corey Freeman’s last blog post..5 Important Reasons Why People WILL Hire You for Freelance Writing Jobs
Hmm, I would personally say it sounded a bit silly because usually you talk about personality in a speaking/writing context, so for many it may be a bit hard to imagine transferring that into a design. Still, I suppose it depends on the individual.
Rocking post
I mainly concentrate on good looks and easy navigation.
Your new design is nice too!
Farrhad A’s last blog post..Killing Time? Stay Productive!
Thanks for the kind words on the new theme, Farrhad
– Yeah, navigation is really important for any theme as you should make it as easy as possible for your visitor to get around the blog and see more content.
I really like the new look here, nice and clean (There is that word again!).
Green and Orange often don’t do well together but they look good here.
I think it’s important to take your time with a new design and not be afraid to change and throw things away…. My design is still work in progress and I may scrap the whole thing yet!!
Forest’s last blog post..$5 A Day Adsense Site: Case Study – Part 2
Thanks for the comment, Forest
Also, thanks for the kind words.
Regarding your last point, I agree that’s very important. On another post I got a comment saying that I shouldn’t change my theme so often (even though the old one was only a temporary measure). I had to agree with this comment, so the point I’m making here is that the theme will probably last you a long time, so you need to get it right. Because of that, you shouldn’t be afraid to experiment with other things, even if it takes a bit longer.
Well the color combination in theme,easy navigation is by far most important thing. Well you covered almost all design aspebt.This is my first visit to your blog and i really like it a lot. Keep it up.
I’m glad you enjoyed your visit. Hopefully I’ll be seeing more of you around here soon
Yeah, a simple navigation is really important. It needs to be clear so that your readers can find what they want to find as soon as possible. If it starts taking too long, they’ll probably just leave.
A lot of web site select the blue tone for their blog design. Because there is believe that blue is more professional and able to draw reader attention much better. This site green tone. I choose a red tone which I consider very special
Stock Traders Blog’s last blog post..I Can’t Help Thinking About my Big Short Trades
I mean red tone design can be considered pretty unique
Stock Traders Blog’s last blog post..I Can’t Help Thinking About my Big Short Trades
When I had this designed, Alex Fraiser (the person who designed it) showed it to me with blue rather than green, but personally I feel that in this case the green looked awesome!
[...] allá de esto, sí hay ciertos puntos que ayudan siempre a que un diseño sea efectivo. La gente de Teenius nos muestra algunos puntos que nos ayudan a crear un buen [...]
[...] allá de esto, sí hay ciertos puntos que ayudan siempre a que un diseño sea efectivo. La gente de Teenius nos muestra algunos puntos que nos ayudan a crear un buen [...]
I think a design is the first thing a person looks at when they visit your website. I always try to design good looking websites and think about my visitors.
Great Post!
Glad you enjoyed the post! As you said, it’s the first impression, so that’s why it’s so important. A bad design could mean readers leave the blog immediately, meaning they don’t get to the most important part; your content!
[...] while ago I wrote an article all about what makes a good design, but today I’m going to go further in to one specific point: [...]
It is very important for people to find their way around. I am also not very big fan of flashy colorful ads within posts.
Yup, it really is one of the worst things you can do to your blog in terms of design, so it’s a shame so many people do it!