What makes a blog look like a blog?
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Dominik Lenk recently asked an interesting question; What are the essential elements of a blog?
In reply I would say that there are very few essentials. It is your blog, and its up to you what you want to include. The only essentials would be to include the basics that you see on every blog, such as a search function, category lists and comment forms.
However, this did lead me onto another question. It is one thing to know the features that technically make a blog a blog, but what is it that makes a blog look like a blog?
Elements of the Design
- Dates. Dates are a big giveaway. By definition a blog is a journal, and by convention it is a journal organized by posting date. No other type of web site places such strong emphasis on when content was created. As such, seeing a date is usually a good indicator that you are reading either a blog or a journal/newsletter.
- Comment counts. The other major aspect of blogging is the community behind it. A blog with comments disabled is barely a blog at all and as such, seeing the customary “x comments” text near the post title or succeeding the post itself is a sure sign of blogs abound.
- Author names. A good blog tends to be regularly updated, and shares some of the personality of the author. Many blogs therefore include the author’s name along with each post. Of course, it’s not always necessary.
- RSS icons and counters. Have a look in your RSS reader. How many of the feeds that you’re subscribed to are from blogs? A good number I’d say, and so it is with good reason that large RSS icons and FeedBurner buttons can safely be attributed as aspects of a blog design.
- Right sidebar. This design style is more of a stereotype than a reasoned element of a blog design. Any type of web site can have a right sidebar, and blogs can of course have left/no sidebars. However, there is still some truth left in the old stereotype. If you had to picture the typical 2-column blog layout, which side would the sidebar be on?
- Date-based archives. Date based archives are a useless accessory for most blogs. However,when they are seen they are a guaranteed sign of a blog. Blogs began as online diaries, giving rise to the popularity of browsing blogs by date. As blogs have evolved though, such archives have grown superfluous and are less commonly seen now.
Six different elements, all compounding together to give off the unmistakable odor of blog. Are there any other aspects of design that you associate with blogging? Or do you have a different take on some of those on the list?
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About the Author
Michael Martin
Michael Martin is the founder of Pro Blog Design. He works as a freelance web designer, loves WordPress, and has an unhealthy addiction to smilies.
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I think that the page layout also effects the perception of a blog. For example, many blog templates can be split up into 2 or 3 main areas(content area, side coloumn, other). Where as regular sites are designed differently.
Also on blogs generally you can view the content from the index page. With general websites you only get samples, headlines or quick video streams on the index page.
Agree completely
Many websites can be split up in 2 or 3 main areas as well. Sidebar and content as minimum, optional header and footer. I wouldn’t call that blog specific but just playing safe, the moment you take an alternative route from the rest you might have the risk of people not “understanding” the design and not being able to find their way on your site.
I’d say though the difference between headlines and actual content on the index page which Daniel mentions is one of the biggest differences between blog and site, although it can’t be used as a real definition either since I’m sure that soon we’ll be seeing a lot of blogs without their content directly on the first page now problogger went displaying just part of a single post there.
I must say though that problogger in my opinion is one of those “blogs” which more or less just has become a site with dynamic content rather than a real blog.
But the borders on many blogs and sites are slowly fading since a lot of sites offer news which came by dates or content with publication dates, possibility to comment on content and such, etcetera.
When I’d give a basic definition myself I’d say a blog is personal whilst a “site” is informative, regardless of the medium used.
Five years from now I doubt most of the things set up with wordpress in example will still be called blogs, it’ll probably just have became site. Something which you can already see some people actually starting to do.
Back in my early days of web design, navigations are always on the left. It’s still use on many websites.
For blogs, from what I understand is that the column is on the RIGHT because our eyes go from left to right and the post contents are the main focus while the others (categorys, recent comments, RSS, so on so forth) are less important thus it’s on the right side.
Then again, some blogs have it on the right. Others have it on the left. Some have it on both sides, some have more than 1 column per side. :)
The thing is that even IF a site has all the elements you mentioned AND uses a blog engine, that doesn’t exactly make it a blog if it’s just containing pages, and minimal posts. Basically using a website using a blog engine’s CMS interface.
Daniel – Very true. The home page differences are usually very noticeable, as you said. :)
Slevi – The boundaries are definitely greying. It’s hard to write a definition now. I’ve created sites using WordPress which you would never know where powered by WordPress (Unless you recognised a few of the plugins and made a guess!). At the same time, blogs like this are writing content worthy of a traditional web site.
goldfries – That’s the explanation that I find as well. It makes sense, to a point. I think convention has more to do with it though, and that that explanation has simply been popularised because it “fits.” When you think about it, do you really read from right to left on screen? I know that I jump straight to whatever catches my attention, without looking around it first. :)
But you’re right, having all the elements I mentioned doesn’t necessarily make it a blog, but it would certainly it feel like a blog to most people who know what blogs are. Defining what is and isn’t a blog is getting very difficult, as you just demonstrated.
I think I read from upper left, to medium left, then to medium right. :D
Quite often I ignore upper right. Well, it’s just the general concept of how a person examines an document (web or not). :)
I think for the general lay people, it’s left to right.
For us who are grew with the Internet, I guess our eyes are trained to work differently on a website, on a blog or on a site that has a different layout which comes to what you mentioned – jump straight to whatever that catches attention. :D
I was going to mention what goldfries did about the sidebar being on the right. I don’t know about convention, but I think that I had mine on the right for that reason. When I started my blog it was on the left.
Just recently I built a site, it has a similar layout to a blog. It has a sidebar on the left for ease of navigation, hopefully people will be able to find what they want quickly.
Some sort of search mechanism is very important. I often find myself trying to find old posts that I know people have written. Sometimes I have to give up because I can’t search through all their archives and the navigation isn’t good enough. It can be a problem on Blogger blogs – people remove the Blogger toolbar from the top of the page, but they don’t insert a search bar anywhere else. It’s also good to have the search “above the fold”… I was searching Veerle’s blog and couldn’t for the life of me find the search bar – I have now though :P
kristarella, thank you for reminding me!
I forgot to place my search box. :) I was using wordpress theme and I had removed the default search bar to avoid redundancy as I also had Technorati stuff there.
It was only recently that I removed the Technorati stuff and I didn’t place it back yet. Hehe.
Haha – glad to be of service!
Heh – I just realised Vikiworks that Michael reviewed this week doesn’t have a search box, but he does have a sitemap. Made the next best thing? If you’re looking for a particular post you can just scan the list or Ctrl+F to find a word you think is in the title.
I guess sitemaps are actually something very new to blogs. We’ve probably seen them on large static websites and wondered why we’d want to use them. Due to the out-of-the-box nature of many blogs (because not all bloggers are HTML and server-side software gurus) people wouldn’t even think to add them in. However, they can be quite useful for search engines and readers. Like on Vikiworks I can just scan the sitemap and get a better idea of what he likes and writes about. I also have one, it seems like only two people have looked at it in the last couple of months, but that’s cool. Looking at it now I wonder if I should separate the blog posts up into categories like Yichi does.
Anywho, my point is that perhaps sitemaps should become a more common and noticeable feature of blogs. I think they’re cool. :)
kristarella – lol – I always miss something with those reviews! xD
But you make a good point about sitemaps. I do find them useful, especially when organized by category. Pro Blog Design will be getting one eventually, but maybe when we have more articles to list?
Ouh, this is interesting. Just checked my feedreader and I saw my name pop up… Hey, this is not my site;-)
Actually, my question was more related to the archive of a blog, but that doesn’t really matter. Nice article.
About the RSS buttons: Actually I recently read somewhere that they annoy quite a couple of readers immensely.
So even if you want to appear like a blog, you might consider leaving them out… On the other hand that does depend on your audience: If you have a techie kind of blog, then you should believe that your readers can find your RSS feed without the big ‘Subscribe’ button.
lol Dominik – Yep, I did twist the question a little. It led me on to the question I’ve written about here. :)
You may be right about the RSS buttons annoying some people, but I would say that if you did leave them out, you’d have far fewer subscribers no matter what your audience is.
For instance, I know that I’ve never subscribed to a blog through the autodiscovery link in the URL bar. I don’t click anything without reading the URL in my browser’s status bar, so I always look for an RSS link on the actual page.
Excellent forum with fantastic references and reading…. well done indeed…
http://srubibablo.com
Many thanks!
I guess although not strictly design but of course included into it, the 125 x 125 ads and ad spaces seem so common on blogs that i do think they contribute to a blog looking like a blog.
I know they are not the only ad size used, but they are common, clearly work, they fit well and say blog to me. :)
Yeah, it helps a lot. I will obey it to change my blog’s design. Thanks!
My site was a blog, but in future, i want to make a blog like journal, because I want to write anything I want without respect more of comment. But its still in my head.
Oh, I prefer like right side bar too, with 3 columns or 2 columns.
This looks like is was just simple but if you will look on it is important that we know what are the basics parts of a blog site to know how to get more on it.
This looks like is was just simple but if you will look on it is important that we know what are the basics parts of a blog site to know how to get more on it.
guess although not strictly design but of course included into it, the 125 x 125 ads and ad spaces seem so common on blogs that i do think they contribute to a blog looking like a blog
I think I will send your article to a lot of bloggers I read. maybe there will be some changes
I also agree on the page layout. I thing i will send your post to a couple of blogs that are intersting but missing some points as coments of archives.
I think RSS, comments and last posts on the home page make a blog looks like a blog :)
And of course sidebars with many diferrent widgets (like Top Commentators, Recent Comments, Archive and Tags)..
Right side bar is key…Its good for getting rid of whitespace too
Great stuff, but what about the placement of these elements? That can say a lot about the blog itself. How you group the RSS, share buttons and social media icons.
Right side bar is key…Its good for getting rid of whitespace too
thanks for share!
Coucou les amis comment trouvez-vous de mon nouveau blog sur le diagnostic immobilier?