Minimalist Blog Design
September 16th 2007
Minimalist blog design is all the rage these days. In the pursuit of usability and a better user experience, designers everywhere are stripping out the needless elements of their sites. The result? Clean, fast loading sites that a user can actually use.
As with any design trend, there are two questions you should ask yourself.
- Why should I adopt a minimalist design?
- How can I adopt a minimalist design?
In response, the Internet Digest puts forward The Case for Minimalist Design. If that has sold you, then your next stop should be Skellie's article on how to create a minimalist design.
Minimalist design is one of the easier trends to implement, and the reasons for it tend to be compelling. ThinkVitamin have a fantastic article on 7 of the best design styles, and of course minimalism is one of them.
There are many examples of minimal designs online. PlainTxt have put together a list of some of the most minimal WordPress themes imaginable. CSS Juice also have a list of minimalist WordPress themes, but with a little more to them.
Personally, James Reggio's personal blog is the best example of absolute minimalism that I can name. It tells you exactly who James is, and gives you the contact information you need. Just about.
What's Been Happening on Pro Blog Design?
Well, I don't think we'll be able to top the milestone from last week, but there is still one nice change:
We're going completely ad-free!
I've said before that I just don't care about the few dollars that adverts here might get me, and I've shown it by going from very few adverts, to even less. Now, we're going right down to zero ads.
I will miss the Amazon ad a little though, because they really were fantastic books I recommended. As a last tribute to them, I've picked out my two favorites (Without affiliate codes!). I can't recommend them enough:
- Don't Make Me Think! by Steve Krug - If this is the only web book you ever read, then it's enough. This simple, short book is the only usability advice you will ever need.
- Transcending CSS by Andy Clarke - If you design or code web sites, then this book is invaluable. It's cutting edge and packed with great advice. Consider it a $30 can of inspiration.
There is one problem though, what do I do with the freed up space? I need ideas!
A snazzy widget? My del.icio.us / StumbleUpon / Digg feed? Or in the spirit of minimalism, leave it empty? All suggestions welcome.
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Twitter
September 16th at 5:40 pm GMT
Comment #1
The feeds aren't cool I'd say, perhaps you could like place a "design of the day" or something there. Or if day is too frequently make it a design of the week, frequently coming with a new design though to display there would sort of fit the subject of the blog I'd say.
September 16th at 6:19 pm GMT
Comment #2
That's a nice idea Slevi. Like a sort of mini-gallery? I had thought about adding a gallery to this site at some point down the line, but something like this sounds very easily achievable. Definitely an idea I'll be thinking about.
September 16th at 6:21 pm GMT
Comment #3
You could do a flickr set, and pull a flickr badge from that --
September 16th at 7:33 pm GMT
Comment #4
You could try the new BlogRush widget. I know widgets can be problematic for a variety of reasons, but if it turns out to be a real traffic driver, it might be worth getting in early.
September 16th at 7:34 pm GMT
Comment #5
Funny how people hook to questions like "What should be my logo" or "What should I put here (or there)"
Or teaching how to make money online without having weblog that already did it, but the weblog which is giving the lessons...
That was one of my Internet researches in "Manipulation techniques".
I think that I should publish part of my work
I hope that you don't get me wrong, Michael
September 16th at 8:38 pm GMT
Comment #6
Yeh, some sort of mini gallery you could see it like yeh. Whether or not eventually you decide to keep an archive or anything wouldn't really matter I think but each day having a new design in the spotlight basically.
Although of course keeping a little archive for it could open up new possibilities, you could think of months of certain styles and such and each day a new blog within that style is added. Then if there's an archive people could easily check back through the past styles and such on as to what has been portrayed there.
September 16th at 11:39 pm GMT
Comment #7
Awesome. Welcome to the club
I think your opinion and thoughts are worth more when there isn't an ulterior motive like money behind everything.
Good call.
September 17th at 12:04 am GMT
Comment #8
sbpoet - I've never been much of a Flickr person tbh, but I like the idea of pulling some sort of image like that. Thanks.
Chris - I'd consider it, but on this site, it would look worse than the adverts!
Truden - I'd be up for reading it!
Slevi - Hmm...Definitely a lot to think about.
Connor - I think you're right. As a reader, I don't usually mind adverts, but on metablogs in particular I am quite consious of it. When the author is writing about blogging itself, you can very easily get the feeling that they're largely blogging for the cash.
September 17th at 4:28 am GMT
Comment #9
well I can say your advertisements didn't bother me, but I admire your following of your own coviction. I do not love random amazon ads, and other where you as a blogger can not control the output. I have many convictions about many things and I want to make sure my readers are never exposed to something out of line with those beliefs.
I don't do advertising on my mom blog. I do minimal advertising on my China blog. My attempts are not to get rich, but rather reimburse my time effort, and at times even overhead. I'm a stay at home mom that works hard on the net i several different ways. I find that I like to be able to reimburse in some sort of way people like you who are so helpful.
Yes, If I were getting the notion they were more concerned about making money than producing content- I'll never come back, but for the legit blogs I don't mind it. Blogging can eat up a lot of time, and I don't think it is bad to make some money doing it. (even though I don't make money blogging :)).
but again, I respect your following of your conviction COMPLETELY
September 17th at 12:44 pm GMT
Comment #10
How about showing your friendly face up front, creating a more personal blog? Maybe that's something for your about page, or maybe you want to keep your looks off your blog?
For me, I love seeing what people look like when I'm subscribed to their feed.
September 17th at 12:59 pm GMT
Comment #11
MZ - Glad you approve of the changes. The lack of advertising was one thing I definitely noticed on your mom site. It made things seem a lot more personal.
David - I think that sooner or later, I'm going to have to do that. A few people have mentioned it already. There are a few fears that need to be overcome first though! (Or perhaps a photo in a balaclava?
)
September 17th at 3:13 pm GMT
Comment #12
http://rainfall-daffinson.com/minimalism/
We chose 23 moments of minimalism web interface design in the last decade, selected several quotes to easily define the minimalism and represent some of the best new minimalism websites.
September 17th at 3:26 pm GMT
Comment #13
Hey Marko - I loved the quotes in particular in that article. Great work, and the site itself is a great example of minimalism in action.
September 17th at 4:15 pm GMT
Comment #14
Thank you very much, Michael!
September 17th at 5:10 pm GMT
Comment #15
Congratulations on going ad-free! I'm not about to do that myself, personally, but it's cool that others are doing that.
"I will miss the Amazon ad a little though, because they really were fantastic books I recommended. As a last tribute to them, I’ve picked out my two favorites (Without affiliate codes!)."
You're getting rid of the book rotation?
That was cool! Oh well...
P.S. Would you mind if I did a similar thing (the book rotation) on one of the NTugo blogs?
September 17th at 5:29 pm GMT
Comment #16
Of course I wouldn't mind Matt! I'll even let ya know how I did it.
I used the Amazon Showcase Widget to quickly get the code for the different books (You need to be careful with this widget though; it randomly inserts its own affiliate code 10% of the time! Just check that each of the book codes is using your aff link when you copy it, or edit the plugin and replace his affiliate code with your own).
I then used the Ad Rotator Widget to display just one book at a time, in random order.
Good luck.
September 17th at 7:07 pm GMT
Comment #17
Okay, thanks.
That's cool the way you did it (you could write a tutorial on that...), but I was thinking of using my own PHP solution, which is fairly lightweight.
September 17th at 7:15 pm GMT
Comment #18
A more efficient solution would indeed be nice. Hope your share your method when you're done.
September 17th at 8:06 pm GMT
Comment #19
What about inserting the books (images) with a link to the author's site?
This way it's not an ad, but your personal recommendation.
September 17th at 9:11 pm GMT
Comment #20
http://www.goldfries.com/inperson/
Do you guys / gals consider this site of mine be considered a minimalistic design?
September 18th at 2:36 am GMT
Comment #21
Thanks for the link, Michael, and congrats on going ad free. I think you'll see that it's worth it
Minimalist that I am, I think there would be a real elegance in keeping the empty space... empty. Whitespace is probably more valuable than any widget you might replace it with :).
September 18th at 3:56 am GMT
Comment #22
Michael,
I really like blog themes that are more minimalistic. Maybe not at the extreme, but I prefer minimalistic themes to those that have too much going on and load slowly.
September 18th at 11:35 am GMT
Comment #23
I hate blogs with ad spams.
So far I only use one, and I've added Adsense again recently (making it 2) just to try out, see what results can increased traffic get.
Basically I think a blog sucks if the user takes more than 5 seconds to identify what is content and what is ad.
September 19th at 11:40 pm GMT
Comment #24
Michael, you can see my Amazon rotation in action over at http://www.ntugo.com/books/ I'll post a tutorial on how I did it on Webmaster-Source in a few days.
September 19th at 11:47 pm GMT
Comment #25
Skellie - I had a feeling you'd vote for that option!
Steven - Same here. A healthy mix is always welcome though, so long as you don't go too far in either direction.
goldfries - Some people go above and beyond what you would call "reasonable" advertising. That kind of advertising is something I'll try never to put you through on PBD!
redwall - It looks great! Looking forward to that tutorial.
September 20th at 1:09 am GMT
Comment #26
I'm looking forward to the tutorial too.
I wont' be able to write it tomorrow, probably, but maybe Friday.
On the subject of "reasonable ads," you may want to take a look at the article I wrote (Is AdBlock "Evil"?). It's on Webmaster-Source if anyone's interested.
September 20th at 9:42 pm GMT
Comment #27
I see the articles up now. I'm off to read it.
September 30th at 4:31 pm GMT
Comment #28
Hm...
I dunno...
There is a lot of empty space to the right at the bottom of the page...
Something would be nice - as long as it isn't too cluttered. (I HATE cluttered blogs)
I would tend to shy away from socializing network buttons as well - everyone has them, and they tend to be a little 'ad-ish' as well.
(I would reccomend 'Add to Technorati Favorites' though)
Something like a top commentors plug-in could be nice (and encourage people to comment, and come back to comment).
Another thing I want to see some bloggers toy with (and I shall when I get my new layout up) is a 'featured post.' It would simply be an image in the sidebar or footer linking to a post that the author likes. I think it would be a great way to highlight old (but good) posts.
I gotta run.
Hope that helps!
September 30th at 4:37 pm GMT
Comment #29
Brian - Thanks for the feedback. We're using a top commenters plugin already, and we do have a featured posts section, but we don't use any images with it. Definitely something to consider.
October 24th at 3:12 am GMT
Comment #30
Mike!
Git info about this article from our email correspondence. Man, I wouldn't have found this as I rarely go into previous months archive. I just wanted to thank you for the great tips you gave me, and let you know that your Blog is indeed great resource for other bloggers!
Keep em coming!
Cheers!
Vikram.
October 24th at 11:20 am GMT
Comment #31
Thanks Vikram. I'm glad you found it useful (And it's always nice to know that people still do recommend some of the older articles as well.
)