Design Review: The Daily Rambler
October 27th 2007
The Daily Rambler is a blogging blog. If you're looking for a new place to get your daily dosage of blogging tips, then you might want to check it out.
What Has Been Done Well?
- The header. The image in particular is striking, and easily the most memorable aspect of the design. The clean black of the rest of the header fits perfectly with the sleek car.
- Post images. Continuing the photography trend, every post has an image at the start. It's good to see a blogger taking the time for this, and surely reaping rewards in return.
- Post headings. The large post titles stand out clearly, making it easy to scan down the list of posts on the home page. Furthermore, the faint gray date is there, but it's not taking away from the actual title. Very good.
- Sidebar links. They look good and they're easy to browse through. What more to say?
What Could Be Changed?
- Navigation. The header contains most of the main navigation, but it's not the easiest to work with. The semi-transparent box over the image is the sort of area that I would normally expect to find a blurb, not links. Beyond that, there's no link to an "About" page up there.
- "Proud Sponsor of The Daily Rambler." This heading for one of your banners is getting more attention than you actual post headings. It isn't necessary (Readers can tell it's an ad), and dropping it would draw a little less attention away from the post.
- Post footers. The post footers are very tall, but use very little of their breadth. The positioning of the elements in the footers could be better done to make better use of the space. The background color is also quite strong, meaning that the footers draw a lot more attention than they need to.
- Sidebar bug. There's a bug with the sidebar where the background stop part of the way down. Usually I wouldn't draw attention to that, but one of your AdSense ads is no longer blended the way it should be.
In conclusion, the aesthetics look good. The images are striking, and the colors complement them well. Instead of focusing more on that, I would focus on removing a little of the visual clutter. There's a great blog underneath it.
Twitter
October 27th at 12:51 pm GMT
Comment #1
Okay - I'm not a design guru, but I wanted to add that since all 4 of the advertising spaces are empty, I would only leave 1 open with the "advertise here message", and fill the other 3 with either an ad for an affiliate program, or create something leading to other popular posts on the page and one to the custom banner section of the site. Then on the advertising page, you can mention that 4 spots are available.
Hmmm ... was that design - not sure.
October 27th at 1:15 pm GMT
Comment #2
Thanks alot for the great tips and I'll be sure to fix it up accordingly.
October 27th at 7:15 pm GMT
Comment #3
What is a car doing on a blog about blogging? :p Is this guy the next John Chow?
October 28th at 3:53 am GMT
Comment #4
You did a good job at not ripping this guy apart, and providing a subjective and two sided review. Not the easiest task with a design that could really use a sharper edge of criticism.
The car thing would've set me off if I was doing this review. There's more to a header than just being a "cool" picture. Not to mention the highly unoriginal idea in the first place, sports car and all.
I could go on for days, but I'll spare the both of you
October 28th at 8:03 am GMT
Comment #5
Totally agree with Connor ^
October 28th at 1:50 pm GMT
Comment #6
Err, looks like a generic template from Gecko...
October 28th at 3:21 pm GMT
Comment #7
Hmmm, thats true, I checked it out. Its a generic Template from Gecko alrite!
Good eye you got Milo!
October 28th at 4:45 pm GMT
Comment #8
I find their entire design very sloppy, and to be quit honest, lost when I am there. The contents on the left looks like it was randomly placed. A ad here and there, a image here and there, oh is that a date I see mixed in with the google ad?
As far as the sidebar is, the link color is hard to see against that background - or is it just me?
October 28th at 8:54 pm GMT
Comment #9
Tanya - That's a good point. Those ad boxed were actually put up while I wrote the review. Good timing, eh? xD
Brad - Cool.
Mohsin and Connor - The John Chow thing is what I thought of. I think I've spent too much time in the blogging world now. The car did make me thing of making money, but I think yous are completely right about it now. Thanks for pulling me up on that one. xD
Milo - Well spotted! I hadn't come across it before and there's nothing in the footer. Thanks for pointing that out.
Robert - I do like the sidebar, but I agree that things are pretty messy.
October 31st at 1:59 am GMT
Comment #10
Wow, this is a pretty serious blogging community
I only started a month ago and am a "Noob" at this entire thing.
I redesigned the site, so I hope this new one doesnt look as cluttered, but I must agree with you, The other template wasted space.
Thanks for all of your comments
Brad
The daily rambler
October 31st at 4:48 pm GMT
Comment #11
Wow Brad. That's a pretty big change!
I prefer the new one. It's a lot cleaner.