How Do Cheaters Redesign And Still Win?
51 Photo by Robinsan
It takes a lot of work to redesign a blog. More time than you might have at the minute.
But your blog is starting to feel stale and the little things that always annoyed you about it are finally getting to you, so what can you do?
Fix just one thing.
At the start of this year, I knew Pro Blog Design was getting in need of some help. I didn’t have the time for a complete redesign though, and the situation wasn’t dire yet. I just needed to tide things over and buy myself some time, so I redesigned the sidebar.
In short, I cheated. But it worked.
Redesign One Thing, Not Everything
When a reader visits a blog day after day, they get used to it. They know how the home page is going to look, they know what they will find in the sidebar and they know what decorations to expect around their comments.
The familiarity does wonders in helping them get around your site quickly, but there are no surprises for them. There’s none of the spark and interest you get when you come across a great looking new site.
It only takes one change to break the monotonous familiarity.
If you logged onto Pro Blog Design tomorrow and found that I’d changed all the blues to pink, you’d be pretty surprised, right?
Something Readers Interact With
Not sure what part of your blog to work on? My advice is to pick a part that your readers interact with regularly. e.g.
- Sidebar. Most of your secondary content will be in the sidebar, and if you’ve been adding to it over time, it could probably use a good redesign to fix the clutter anyway!
- Comments and comment forms. All the discussion happens in your comments, but if they’re hard to read or boring and bland to look at, most people aren’t going to go to the trouble of reading them. Some nice changes here will go down great with anyone that leaves comments on your blog, your most loyal readers usually!
- Header and logo. Everyone sees the header and logo every time they load the page, and probably click your main navigation links up there. It’s easy to jazz it up and it makes a huge difference, e.g. How about a new background photo? Or getting the logo mascot to pull a new pose?
One and Only One
It doesn’t take a great deal of effort to redesign one aspect of your blog. A few days at most usually.
The problem is that it’s very tempting then to redesign 2 aspects of your blog, or 3, or 4, or as many as you can until you get bored.
This might work well (If you’re redesigning to add new features to the site or fix old problems), but you’ve crossed the line between freshening up your current design, and creating a whole new design.
But you didn’t create a whole new design. You just dressed up the original, and your readers can see that. Instead of some subtle, well done improvements, they’ve been given a half-hearted redesign.
If you want to redesign everything, then do it properly, from the ground up. You’ll remove all the limitations of your old design and be able to build a truly great site.
If you just want to fix up the little bits and pieces, then stick to the little bits and pieces. Sometimes a little is enough.
When is Cheating Not Good Enough?
There comes a point when small changes aren’t going to save your blog anymore. They’re great for some things, like removing some clutter or adding a more impressive background design.
But some changes are too big. The underlying layout can’t be changed without affecting everything. The overall color scheme is very hard to change. Post thumbnails on the homepage just might not work with your current look.
If what you want to do doesn’t feel right in your current design, then it’s time to start thinking about a whole new design.
Or if you start redesigning one thing, and get an idea for another, and another and another and so on, then there’s a lot more wrong with your theme than you realized. Working on all of your ideas would be a lot of work. You might be better off putting that work into a brand new theme.
Cheating worked for me in February, but it was nothing compared to redesigning in August. Redesigns are a lot more work, but there’s a lot more reward there too.
Have you ever cheated on your blog? Or is there a part of it now that you just might try it on?
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I just redesigned the entire blog ( I believe ) :(
I’ve been cheating I guess you can say for awhile haha. I usually find a template I like and I tweak the heck out of it to how I like it. So I have gone over about 3 redesigns finding the template I really like and then I’ve tweaked my current one some to add and remove what I do and don’t like.
So I have and haven’t been cheating you could say =)
~ Jeremy Newton
Very good read Michael! Good advice on how to spice up your blog without a total overhaul which could take a year to do.
I’m really itching to redesign my own blog, but not time. A simple change like you talk about in the article could be just what’s needed.
Hi, Michael!, :) wew, cheater ha? that’s rough, though, “effective” would be acceptable word for me. Lol! anyway i agree with you, sometimes we know that there is something that didn’t fit with our theme but we are not sure wich is. Then we start our painful experiment :) i agree with you on pick one element from our themes then focus it. I believe it could reduce time and effort :)
Thanks for the tips michael.
Hi Michael,
I completely agree how small changes can break the monotony. On my own blog, I recently changed the top banner from clouds to a more minimal appearance, focusing on orange as opposed to blue. The difference was huge, even though it didn’t take very long.
I’ve linked to the change of design article through my name.
Enjoy the weekend mate!
Dinu,
Yeah, I’d definitely count that as a full redesign! It looks great though, so well done. :D
Jeremy,
That’s a good way to do things. It saves you the time it would take to work on the overall layout, and some of the smaller details. The end result still looks great! :)
Deron,
I remember you saying a while ago that you were thinking of a redesign, but it really is hard to find the time! What do ya think you would change if you picked just one aspect?? :)
Adie,
Haha, cheating is effective when it’s done well! Nothing wrong with that. :D
I’m glad its worked out for you in the past. It definitely takes less work to do, so it makes sense to try to do things that way and save yourself time!
David,
I should have used your blog as another example, it’s perfect! That change changed the whole feel of the blog. Both the original and the new one looked great, but the color and photos changed the whole image of the theme. :)
I redesigned my theme, just two days ago.. Comments?
Great post – as usual :P
I think almost everybody is cheating :) It takes really a lot of time to redesign completely, so there is no other choice than cheat. Great article though!
Brad,
Didn’t know you’d redesigned it! Must go see now. :D
Mike, this is a great site and great resources. You must continue your work
Dainis,
True, a lot of people do cheat already. Lots also think they have to go the whole way with their design work though. Just trying to make a point here that they really don’t. Going to town on just the one aspect can have a great effect. :)
Yeah my theme originally had an all white background and so I went and messed with the css so you it is now a dark gray, I also took out the tags cause the way they had it set up was really really bad and weird so I took them out.
If you look at the default theme I’ve changed quite abit but I think that has been the most fun. Taking something and hacking it to your own, It’s quite enjoyable.
In my opinion it’s not cheating.
For me, my theme evolves. sometimes sidebar. sometimes footer. and recently, the header.
A change is still a change, like renovating a house. You could do a complete makeover or do it bit by bit, either way it’s not a cheat. :D
Jeremy,
Changing the theme yourself and making it more your style makes it more your own. You’re probably more proud of your blog now than you would be if you hadn’t done that!
Goldfries,
Evolving is a good way to describe it. When I said cheating, I didn’t mean it as a bad thing. I just meant that you were cheating by avoiding the work of a full redesign. There’s nothing wrong with it, it’s just a nice trick to use. :D
Don’t know if you’ve thought of it but since your talking about blog redesign have you thought about maybe a post on how to style your comments or restyle them. I’ve been trying to do comment bubbles and so far the codes been racking me cause it’s html and I have to do it in php and I’m new to it still.
Might be something to look at. If I can figure out or something I’d be happy to write it but I don’t think I ever will lol
While the styling of comments area are part of the design, it is the area of a blog design that’s certainly not noticed, or at least not before doing a click and a scroll, while changes on the sides and top are noticeable upon reaching the site.
It takes a lot of work to redesign a blog. More time than you might have at the minute.
But your blog is starting to feel stale and the little things that always annoyed you about it are finally getting to you, so what can you do?
Gee mate, sure if cheating or something similar works than it is great. After all someone rightly said:
Good designers copy, Great designers steal.
Totally agree. A small change can freshen up any blog or website. What’ya think about adding CSS skins, so people can change the feel for themselves? Can it be done using wordpress or blogger anyway?
Just found your site and will come back soon – good work fellow!
Inspite of all that you’ve written, I still find that strange urge to redesign every 5-6 months (or as soon as I have some leisure time). I think, part of it has to do with me getting bored, and part of it has to do with me learning more design stuff (especially color, aesthetics, better and less CSS etc.) which I’m eager to try out.
As for cheating, I haven’t done it. I usually find it much better to design from scratch, instead of having to wrestle with an outdated theme (outdated because I would have improved at least a bit since making the previous theme). I suspect professional designers like you won’t have that kind of problem, Michael.
We have relaunched our Blog 2 days ago and changed everthing: Logo, Colors, Layout, Features. Now we use a Magazine Style Layout and orange as acsent color (befor it was hot pink).
Our old Theme was based on K2 and this makes problems with a lot of plugins. Now our Theme is based on newsweek (with a lot of changes) and is much more flexible.
Actually, I don’t think that’s cheating at all. I think it’s evolving. Unless a everything about your current design is truly awful, then there’s no need to completely re-design. Just keep making little changes. You’ll keep your users interested by providing them with little surprises. You’ll keep a trendy design from beginning to look stale. And you’ll avoid completely disorienting your users when they show up. People can deal with gradual changes more easily than one giant change.
I try to make it my goal to continually make small improvements and changes on all the web sites I manage. I think that approach has a lot of advantages over periodic complete overhauls.
Interesting idea – I’ve been thinking of reworking my portfolio site and I think I’ll try your suggestion.
We recently changed our entire blog design to be completely different from the main website. Our main site design was not accommodating enough.
The change was quite a success with our site regulars and some of our clients.
I totally agree that people need familiarty when they vist your site. They don’t want to waste time looking for things were they used to be.
I guess there always comes a time when you need to change something, mostly small details, on your site. In just a few minutes I can change the font family, the way headers look, or the color of text.
Most blogs give you the ability to quickly change these aspects. Look in your options and you should be able to find layout or setting options.
For the die-hards like Michael who design a blog from scratch, CSS should be at the heart of any design – or at least your next redesign.
Great advice on only changing one thing. It’s easy to get caught up in changing “just one more thing” and then you end up with a mediocre redesign. Plus, if you have to pick only one thing, you are more likely to pick something important.
I especially like your ideas about the header and logo. Those are easy to change up and can update the look and feel just enough to give the blog a whole new vibe without changing how bloggers interact with the blog itself. But a logo change should be done with caution. That’s your brand’s centerpiece after all and it’s worth taking time to redesign a logo carefully.
Good stuff!
I don’t redesign any thing but i preffer to create a new one with more updates.I am working on that.It will take time but my effort go on working for the good.Thank you.
I make changes to my websites everynow and then because it helps to keep things looking fresh and interesting.
Hi,
Because of the word ” cheat” that you have used in your article it creates curiosity to readers like me to read the whole article. Thanks for this I got more idea about web designing and good writing.
Great post. I’m currently going through the dilema of should I just tweak a few bits and pieces or redesign my entire site. Although I’m reasonably happy with the design of my site, I find it is now limiting me in terms of the content I want to put on it.
I think the best place for me, is to start off my redesigning the homepage, the style will stay the same, but the layout, content and functionality will change – It’s a lot of changes, but I think I can get away with it :)
Good idea!
I’ve been thinking of reworking my portfolio site and I think I’ll try your suggestion.
Thanks
Thanks very much for this nice article and many other nice article that I’ve found on this nice Web.
s for cheating, I haven’t done it. I usually find it much better to design from scratch, instead of having to wrestle with an outdated theme (outdated because I would have improved at least a bit since making the previous theme).
Good designers copy, Great designers steal.
Very good read Michael! It takes a lot of work to redesign a blog. More time than you might have at the minute.
Thanks for this I got more idea about web designing and good writing. I think it’s evolving. Unless a everything about your current design is truly awful, then there’s no need to completely re-design.
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Wow, so good! I’m really itching to redesign my own blog, but not time. A simple change like you talk about in the article could be just what’s needed.
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A really good idea. Something I would never consider but when you don’t have time to do things like a complete resign then I think this is a good compromise. This is something that I will be doing in the future with my designs when there simply isn’t time to completely rethink my websites.
I started out wanting to make a few changes & ended up redesigning the entire blog. I wish I had read this before I started, LOL.
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Thanks for this I got more idea about web designing and good writing. I think it’s evolving. Unless a everything about your current design is truly awful, then there’s no need to completely re-design.
Most blogs give you the ability to quickly change these aspects. Look in your options and you should be able to find layout or setting options.
For the die-hards like Michael who design a blog from scratch, CSS should be at the heart of any design – or at least your next redesign.
HAHA, thanks for your share! The change was quite a success with our site regulars and some of our clients. Our main site design was not accommodating enough.