A rant about bloggers who make their own layouts
This entry was posted on November 12, 2007
These days anyone can start their own blog. Some of them choose a dedicated bloghost such as livejournal or blogger, whereas others opt for their own webspace where they can use their choice of blogging engine and have complete control over their layout. Sometimes this can be a good thing as it allows budding web designers (like me) to try their hand at creating their own sites, thus improving their skills and learning along the way.
Sometimes, however, it can be very dangerous. Blog owners in general have an interest in only one part of web design : the aesthetics. Of course, I don’t deny that this is a very sweeping generalisation, because there are thousands of bloggers who take their web designing seriously (and I like to count myself in that group), but, I’m not talking about those people.
I’m talking about the people who come up with layouts using bastardised HTML and consider themselves to be “proper designers”. Customising wordpress / making your own website layout does not make you a web designer. But, I’m not talking about what makes some a web designer either.
What I’m really talking about is whether blog owners are dangerous or not. As mentioned above, most blog owners (the ones on their own webspace) who decide to make their own layouts can often be dangerous. Mention usability and they’ll start talking about how cool their navigation is because it’s made from coloured blobs. Mention accessibility and they’ll tell you how cool their site looks in Internet Explorer (or Firefox, depending on their browser of choice).
A lot of blog owners make very personal choices when it comes to their designs (on everything from tiny fonts, narrow columns, large images, and anything else they like), but where does that leave the visitor? A blogger / webmaster’s personal preferences don’t always match the preferences of their visitors, and this is where the danger starts.
What’s more important - the blogger’s tastes of the visitor’s tastes? To me, it’s the want / need of every blogger to get their writing to as many people as possible. This involves having at least a basic understanding of usability and accessibility and what they mean for you and your visitors.
Unfortunately when it comes to visitors’ needs, our personal preferences have to be put aside. If we could all indulge our personal preferences, my site would have giant green Georgia for the body text, with justified text and a header containing a picture of Zac Efron. Sometimes it’s good when we put our visitors’ needs and wants before our own!
I think the key to understanding your visitors’ needs is to accept that each of your visitors’ is unique, and that none of them are the same as you. I visit my site using Firefox on Windows Vista, but barely any of my visitors view my site the same way. Out of those who do, they probably don’t all like giant green Georgia and Zac Efron, and though I think that’s a shame, I can accept that it’s not what they want.
So there we have it: my rant for the day. Blog owners need to be more aware about the implications that creating their own layouts has for their visitors, and accept that not all their visitors have the same tastes / technology / browsing habits that they do.
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