Contemplating a site re-design

For those of you who remember, throughout the month of November and December, I spent endless hours and a lot of swearing at my computer, re-designing Wright Creativity. It took me forever to decide on a design, and to make all the elements work. Unfortunately, I am still not happy with it. I absolutely love the background image on my blog, and I love the fun look that the notebook and the tags give my site – but I have a lot of problems with the design. Rather than just fixing the issues, I figured I could share my thought process as a learning experience for anyone looking at their own site and deciding whether it needs a re-design. After looking through everything, analyzing my blog has given me a quick list of 4 easy ways to decide if your site needs a re-design as well.

1. Does the navigation take care of everything you need? Right now, mine fails to do so. I have about 6 pages to my blog, but most people have only ever seen the home page and the about me page, since those are the only page’s links that exist at the top of the site. I want to direct people to my portfolio, and have done so by creating an image on the sidebar, but since the sidebar is so crowded (and entirely different point) most people don’t even see it. You want people to be able to get to the important pages easily, and return to the homepage just as fast. Your navigation should let people know where they are just as much as where they want to go.

2. Can people find what you want them to find? Well, as I pointed out with the portfolio, no. I want people to also see my twitter updates, the fact that I am on alltop, and to connect with me on social networking sites. But, my current sidebar/layout, do not make this an easy task. I have even had people ask me where my rss button is (honestly, I thought the big pink button was pretty obvious, but it has happened more than once that they thought it was just decoration). People will not hunt for things very long, so if it is important, make sure that they can find it without much effort.

3. Is it easy to read? This seems like a no brainer, but you also have to remeber who your readers are. For the most part, my blog does this – I use black text on a white background in an easy to read font. But it is something to remember for yours. If you are using a hard to read font as your main font, or are writing in a light color on a dark background, you may want to think about your readers. As eyes get older, it is harder to read light writing on a dark background. And if you’re anything like me, your readers are all ages.

4. Does it fit your blog personality? Does the look of your blog fit the message of your blog? Right now, mine kind of does. It is creative and colorful, which fits my message, but it is not the most organized or easy to navigate, which goes against many of the ideas that I talk about. For your own site, make sure that if you write about funny stories, the blog isn’t too serious looking and vice versa. The first thing that someone notices when visiting your site is the look, make sure it gives off the right impression.

With all that said, I think that I am going to have to do an overhaul on the look of my blog. I haven’t quite decided what I want to do with it, or when I will have the time to do so, but I am definitely in the brainstorming process.Unfortunately since this is just a a personal fun blog, I don’t really have the finances to spend, the re-design is left up to ‘when I have time’ or if you want to help be a part of the overhaul, either by donating money or your coding services (I can code, but prefer to just design…) let me know! kirsten (at) wrightcreativity.com

Related posts:

1. 5 hints to make your next site design easier
2. Would you pay $250,000 for this site?
3. How graphic design can ruin writing