Here are the Top Ten Design Mistakes in Weblog usability, at least according to usability guru Jakob Nielsen:
- No author biography (a lack of a descriptive ‘About’ page)
- No author photo
- Nondescript posting titles (no microcontent)
- Links don’t say where they go (link text such as ‘here’ or ‘there’)
- Classic hits are buried (no chance for newcomers to find popular posts)
- The calendar is the only navigation (no categories)
- Irregular publishing frequency
- Mixing topics (not becoming a niche blogger and expert of a chosen field)
- Forgetting that you write for your future boss (flames/ rants don’t look too good once your prospective employer googles you)
- Having a domain name owned by a weblog service
Let’s see how we’re doing here. I admit being lacking on #5 (on the other hand, which posts are classics here?), possibly #7 and of course #8, but I score pretty well on all the other points. So why don’t I have thousands of visitors each day, Jakob ;-).
Also, why is it that most lists of do’s and dont’s always end up having exactly ten points?
Personally I think its kinda crappy really. Blogs give people an outlet to free themselves and now you gotta slap 10 rules on that as well? Some are ok but #9 is a threat basically. #8 means you actually have a pulse.