Madhur – Good choices. Color is always a very memorable aspect of a design.

Goldfries – Yep, that makes a lot of sense. Great design is just there. It’s not noticed. Only the content is noticed.

Redwall – I can think of quite a few blogs like that off the top of my head.

Tanya – Very true. Organizing your content well is crucial or visitors will just get lost.

Webplay – That unique aspect to your blog definitely makes ya stand out that little bit more.

Alex – lol – Thought so.

David – I like how you’ve phrased that. Well said.

Can the most important information be read / found before less important information.

Favorite aspect of a blog’s design? The logo/header image. It is the way to brand your blog or website with only one, simple graphic.

The header can be complicated (but related to the topic as in my blog here) or a simple logo like over at Zen Habits by Leo.

But it’s a must when you want to break through the blogging trashbin and brand yourself towards blogging success.

Too small font size is a killer – not sure what is up with the extremely small fonts in tag clouds – if I can’t read it, I can’t click on it.

And the organization of the content – easy to find, subheadings that stand out (I’m guilty of messing this up) and proper alignment of … everything.

What good is good content if the design isn’t one that allows. A good design is one that shows the content YET does not distract.

Colors should have a theme YET not make users uncomfortable.

Fonts should be clear and readable, I do come by sites with text and background almost blend and that’s not good.

Sure, some things are entirely preferential (like how some prefer light over dark instead of vice versa) but there are other elements that are universally accepted, for example having too striking contrast between background and content, like red background and green text or something.

All in all, a good design is one that people get used to it easily, easily identifiable contents and the choice of colors doesn’t hurt your eye.

Do I make sense?

My list would be:

1. Content
2. Accessible and semantic markup
3. Community (responding to comments)
4. Value (educational, teaching, etc.)

Just my opinion about what I feel is important, plus if it looks nice, that helps…

Redwall – The more the better of course. I think your 1st one is particularly important, and often undervalued.

Mohsin – CTAs are an interesting one. Focusing on getting the users to do what you want. I like it.

Steven – That’s true. The design is only as strong as its weakest link. You need to get it all right.

Alex – You mean the actual post formatting? That’s a good point. It takes a fair bit of effort to do that in every post you write, but I think it’s worth it as well.

Pinyo – Just right. If you’ve got those 2, you’re doing well.

Darren – Thanks for the feed reader perspective. Content formatting is crucial; I agree. The hierarchy is particularly useful in longer articles. I also like bolding phrases. It makes things very easy to scan.