Sidebar Redesign: My Thought Process
137In the past few days, I redesigned my sidebar. It doesn’t sound like much, does it? But looking back, that one change has had quite an impact on the overall look.
In blogs in particular, the sidebar is a big part of your design. But also in blogs, they tend to be quite poorly done. The reason is that very few of us design our sidebars with content in mind.
I’m guilty as well. When I first designed the sidebar for this blog, I was thinking about leaderboard ads and various widgets. Since then, I’ve dropped the ads, changed the widgets and added a sideblog.
Odds are, your sidebar content has changed in the course of your blogging as well. It is important to reassess your entire blog every now and again, but the sidebar is one area that you should pay particular attention to because of its changing nature.
In this post, I want to go through how I reassessed mine, and worked to improve it. You can then apply the same process to your own blog.
You can click on the image below to see a full-size comparison of the two.
Step 1 – Organize Your Content
You cannot design well without knowing what you are designing for. The first step is to list out all of the content you are designing for, and prioritize it by importance.
To do this, I wrote out all of the sections that I was interested in having (Widgets, RSS, sideblog etc.), and ran them through my prioritization flowchart, to get the following order of importance:
Group 1 – Slogan, Subscription Options, Search Bar
Group 2 – Nothing
Group 3 – Services Advert
Group 4 – Categories, Popular Posts, Recent Posts, Sideblog
Group 5 – Top Commenters, Twitter
Step 2 – Reassess the Layout
Now you must look at the underlying layout for your new sidebar.
I have written before about 3 column vs 2 column layouts, and chosen 3. There were good reasons for it at the time, but the sidebar has changed, and the reasons no longer applied.
3 column layouts work very well with sidebar images. Adverts? MyBlogLog widgets? Flickr photostreams? They all look good in 3 columns.
However, I now have very few images in my sidebar. The RSS button and the Services advert are the height of it. Instead, I have much more text than I did originally. Thin, 3-column sidebars are not easy to read from.
Look at the comparison image above and compare reading a sideblog description in the old and in the new. The extra horizontal space in the new sidebar makes the content much more legible, which was crucial for both the sidebar and the twitter widget. Even the long headlines are improved now as they all fit on a single line.
Step 3 – Reassess The Design
Another reason for redesigning my sidebar was it had become both bland and cluttered. Does the original style of your sidebar still suit?
For me, the blandness arose because the original design was very simple. It was meant for leaderboard adverts and images, not text and lists of links.
The clutter arose as I added more and more content. The sideblog was the last straw. All designs have a breaking point where you can’t reasonably force any more content upon them.
The first priority was the clutter. The RSS area was no longer well highlighted, and telling one section from the next was a chore. I solved this problem by dividing the content into very distinct sections, with ample padding. Depending on your own blog’s design, you could do something similar, or use well highlighted headings perhaps?
I also used the DOMtabs script to “tab” the majority of the textual content.
All that remained then was to design. What you do here will depend on your own blog’s design, but I found that adding contrasting background colors worked well and brought a new life to the blog. I’m not entirely sold on them yet though. The Twitter widget in particular is more eye-catching than it needs to be…
Step 4 – Special Circumstances
There are always elements of a design that need special consideration. As you redesign your blog, feel free to treat certain sections differently than normal. In my case:
- The search bar is under-used here, so I moved it into the DOMtabs area. It even looked better here as it’s not large enough to have its own “section”.
- According to the prioritization, the sideblog is more important than Twitter, but the sideblog is just text on the page background, and looks better at the end of the column (As opposed to having a “gap” in the middle of the design).
- The list of categories is not shown by default. Instead, I felt that the list of popular posts was more useful to a visitor, and so I show those instead. More to come on this in a future post.
- As Brian Purkiss recently pointed out, people can get the search and email subscribe bars mixed up. This is particularly true in my case with such a hidden search bar, so I’ve added the word “email…” to my email form. This, combined with the obvious sectioning of the sidebar (The bright orange background!) should help stop that mistake.
That is how I ended up with the design you now see. It’s not perfect, and in another few months, I might redesign it again, but it is much better than its predecessor.
Does your blog’s sidebar still suit its content? Or would a redesign be good for you as well?
And to the regulars here, what do you think? Better or worse than the original? (And do you use Twitter?)
And last of all, there was a bit of a hiccough with the DOMtabs code, so if you happen to spot “<div id=”stupidtabs”></div>” in my source code, you’ll know why…
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I like it! It’s like boxes directly in the grid and that’s very clear and neat!
I agree. This is one of the nicer desingn Ive been to and the simplicity really stands out to me. Its neat and clean. It is simple, functional and still aesthetically pleasing to the eye. Very good job.
I agree with you too. The new side bar is better and organized properly. I also like the layout of information on the sidebar.
Almost perfect, but why is the “custom promo” section a picture, instad of text over an image?
Twitter: maybe leave bird and border, but remove the background, it’s very focusing,and yes, I don’t use Twitter much =)
I really like the 2-column look. That, and the borders on your sidebar content—matching the main content—really start to push the design for this blog up towards 11. Great re-align.
Very good tweak. I loved what you’ve done here. I love tabbed listing of posts, i have also put one in my website. It takes less space and its more friendly. One suggestion though, you could have put Related or Random posts Tab instead of comments, it will improved your post’s browse-ability. And incidentally i am also done with my website designing. This time I am trying on Movies related blog for real movie-buffs. Have a look, it might provide a break from web-designing. :)
I like the two-column design. Makes up for a better reading.
Much nicer now. Very nice work!
I love it!More and more people are going to the tabs idea for decreasing the amount of space the categories, archives, etc. take up in the sidebar. I think they’re a very good idea, as they really clean things up.You added that little twist to them, the search bar at the bottom, that makes them really work well on your blog! ^_^I agree with milo about the Twitter bar, though, it really draws the eye down there (perhaps more than it should?).
Milo,
I wanted the whole button to be clickable, and that was the easiest way of doing it. All of the text is there in the source, but it’s hidden by the CSS.
I think you might be right about Twitter though. I’m unsure of it as well. I’ll have to look at it when I get back. :(
Ian,
Thanks. I liked using the thick borders as well, but it’s one of the reasons that the Twitter box stands out so vividly. :(
Kuldeep,
Cool. At the minute I use IMDb for movie info, but I’m not mad keen on it. It’s pretty ugly and awkward to navigate. Your site is much nicer looking, and I love how you’ve used DOMtabs as well. :) (Though one of your ads beeps constantly and had me looking round the room for 5 mins wondering what was causing it! xD )
Gustav and Erik,
Thanks, glad yous like it as well. :)
Caitlin,
I think you’re right about Twitter. I’m not sure what to do with it though. I suppose I could try something similar to the tabs, but with a blue border. I’ll have to look into it when I get back. :)
I hate to be the angry storm cloud that rains on everyone’s parade…
Personally, I think that the old design looked better.
Why?
1 – The tabs didn’t load for me and it was just a blank square which could of been a compatibility problem for many people..
2 – The RSS button draws your attention faster than the content, which could effect the way people read your blog.
3 – The blue box confuses me.. Twitter is it? Why is that on there?
For people that are wondering why the tabs and twitter didn’t load here are my specs:
Updated Mozilla Firefox
Wireless Internet (300KBPS download / 200 UPLOAD)
New Laptop
Perhaps if it loaded it might look better.
I don’t know. I just don’t think I enjoy it :D
Brad,
No, it’s good to hear some criticisms. :)
1 – That one worries me. I tested it in all browsers, and it always worked. It does take a few seconds to load though; did you give it enough time?
2 – Do you not think that it was a little too un-noticeable in the old one though? Everything sort of blende together making it look cluttered.
3 – I get the feeling you’re right about this one. 2 others have mentioned it, and I was never entirely sold on it either… :(
Thanks for the constructive feedback. :)
Thanks for the link love!And I like the design a lot more now. It fits this blog very well.Very well thought out.Bravo!
I’ve been toying with a sidebar redesign and your new sidebar nudges me that much more toward a 2 column layout over my current 3 column layout.
One danger with the 3 column layout is the threat of ending up with so much stuff there that readers end up ignoring it.
And while I don’t think my current layout or your previous layout suffers from that, a 2 column format really makes you think about what you want to highlight for readers. Meanwhile, the use of DOMtab gives you the option to include stuff that’s useful but not critical.
But what I really like about your implementation is how well it integrates with the overall layout and design. I’m sure we’ve all seen blogs where the sidebar content appears almost tacked on rather than an integral part of the site.
Nice work! And now to mull over some of my own ideas…
I’ve already said I like it.
Funny that you mentioned the search bar, I used to always go for the email bar first, now the fact that it’s in the subscribe box (plus the email word) makes it much easier to tell the difference.
Does anyone else have a problem when they click on the posturl/#comments link from the subscribed emails? The page starts to load and then it goes blank, but not white blank – the background colour blank. It used to work, I’m not sure what it is. It’s weird.
Anywho, spot on with everything Michael, including your doubt of the Twitter section, I’m not against it. I always think the Twitter birds are cute, but it does dominate a bit.
Nice, I like it. I think the top of it especially looks nice.
Hey thanks! nice to hear that you liked my design. I didnt knew my Ad program also do that. May be i’ll follow your philosophy on ads and may remove it completly.
I saw rest of criticism your new design, but i still think this one looks good. The symmetry you followed is lot friendly. Only that twitter bar is a bit odd for me. I am not a twitter fan, so dont take my word for it.
Tabs are very refreshing indeed!It has reduced the clutter and also the amount of scrolling to find a topic. Nice and neat, Michael. I liked it.
I didn’t think your two column layout would be an improvement, but having seen it in action, I most certainly do. Great job Michael. You have me thinking about my 3 columns in davidairey.com.
Ahh It loaded now. It looks 10x better. I gave it alot of time last time, I don’t know what happened :D
You made some good decisions for the new sidebar design, congrats!
yes……
Nice work, Michael.The tabs are an area I wrestle with. I was recently asked by a client about implementing tabs in their design. I advised against it. I didn’t feel it was necessary, but I also just think in a lot of cases, it’s an unnecessary complication.If most of your visitors come from social media sites, and other blogs, then there shouldn’t be too many issues. However, if a large number of visitors are from search engines, then I’d rather avoid it.
I’m not a fan of 3-column layout, it polarized focal points greatly.
Tabbed presentation is a must these days, as ‘2.0’ trends shout more simplicity and content-orientation. Enough said, I love your new design- uncluttered and easy to follow ..
I just finished redesigning my blog (also dropped some widgets), and next will focus on tweaking the sidebar design. If only tabbed content is available for blogspots blogs :)
I need a better subscription box, thanks for sharing!
Strange behaviour on ff and opera on xp/vista:
clicking on comments link from the frontpage does turn the page blank?
Milo I get the same thing.
Frankly, the sidebar is now so well done that the rest of the layout doesn’t look half as beautiful. :)
Hi Michael, I like the new design, except that it’s a problem for those of us who must increase the font size. Things begin to overlap…Also, re: Twitter — I took it off my blog, then replaced it when readers/ friends objected. That’s how they keep up with me day-to-day. But I don’t think it’s needed on a business or professional blog, unless you use it as a sort of mini pro-blog. As you will remember, we don’t agree on the need for a sidebar to be very short — but, for a very short sidebar, this is a nice one.
Cool website! The old sidebar looked cooler. But the new one is good too! But this website still isn’t as cool as FG… :)
P.S. I never knew that your last name was Martin… :mrgreen:
I like the way it looks and I love the layout for your comments. It is neat Do you have a code I can get from you so I can add it to my template? If you do please send it to me my e-mail is lilyruth96@gmail.com and if its not to much trouble will you tell me where in my template to place it at? Id really like to add it to my template. thanks.
As I mentioned back in February, I had been playing with tabbed content and a two column format and your change encouraged me to continue.
As a result, I finally cut over to a new theme designed with both of these elements in mind. I find it a huge improvement over the old 3 column layout. Simplifying the overall layout really emphasizes the remaining elements and particularly the content. Thanks!
Lily,
Sorry, the styling of the comments is part of the theme here, which I’m not releasing until Pro Blog Design has a new theme. :(
I might write up a post on adding comments like these to your blog someday, but it would be a bit much for an email I’m afraid. xD
Robert,
Your blog looks great, and very clutter-free. The 2 column-layout seems to fit perfectly, and the DOMtabs help it a tonne. :D
Nice redesign. I have been redesigning my blog one element at a time and I actually just redesigned my sidebar as well. The article would had been helpful if I had only seen it earlier. Nice article though. It is nice to see that someone else is also spreading good articles on taking a second look at their blog design.
I must admit that this is a great idea for sidebar, thanks.
Vinh,
Your blog looks good. Keep at it :D
Martin,
Thanks for the comment.
Thank you for this article to understand the re-design process of your own sidebar.My favorit sidebar is the new style, because the design ant structure is clear and not all information are visible.Ralph
Ralph,
I agree. Thanks for letting me know your thoughts on it. :)
Your sidebar looks a lot better. I’ve always struggled as to what elements to put in it and I’ve never liked the multiple columns approach to a sidebar.
Pete,
Multiple columns work well sometimes. It all depends on the design. :)
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Very well said. And I guess my site needs o be redesigned and follow your suggestions. Thanks for the idea.
maybe you are rigt, but you should not copy all of the things that seems right, have your own identity.
doesn’t sound like much, does it? But looking back, that one change has had quite an im
My favorit sidebar is the new style, because the design ant structure is clear and not all information are visible.
出会い系のlilyで恋人ゲット。
あけましておめでとうございます。
あけましておめでとうございます。
I’m going to start my own blog, so I need any information on creating a sidebar. I looked through various tips, and your step-by-step instructions are those I liked the most. I’m sure I will apply them when building my sidebar. I like your old sidebar but the new one is much more impressive. Thanks.
His is a really great redesign, I like that you balanced the funtionality with a streamlined web presence. You don’t really have to choose which one you would rather when you plan for both.
Thanks for the info,,, I love it
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