This blog of mine underwent a redesign recently. That doesn’t mean a lot by itself, seeing as how I change themes as often as I bathe (Damn it! I did NOT say that). But this last design change was something a lot of thought went into. I like to think that it marks the beginning of a new path for vmohanty.com.
I wanted to do a post on what has changed and my reasons behind making those changes. Also, Patrix asked for it (see his post on the same topic).
Till now my blog has been like an article repository. One that got updated with essays and stories whenever I wrote something worth sharing. To this end, the blog has had a look more suited to a content-powered website. I have traditionally gone for a solid, full, and well-organised look. To cut a long story short, vmohanty.com has been more a site than a blog.
Add to that situation the fact that social media has grown in prominence in recent months. My own presence on Twitter and Facebook has a decent following (I’m just saying!) and I post tons of content there in the form of short text updates, photos, and comments. In the olden days, people did all this on their blogs.
But times have changed and the amount of interaction people used to have on blogs has dropped very noticeably. I share my photos in controlled environments inside social networks and they are viewed by people who care. My blog posts get more comments when they show up as notes on my Facebook profile. I have more followers on Twitter than I have feed subscribers on my blog. I actually get more feedback on my blog posts via twitter than I do in the comments section! Who would have thought of all this a few years ago?
I figured therefore, that I should “plug” my blog into my social media profile, because it sure as hell is not going to be able to stand on its own in the middle of all the other places that define my “presence” on the web nowadays. The blog must become a part of my small extended empire (as opposed to the centre of it).
Much of the new plan didn’t need any work at all. My blog URL is on my Twitter profile, and my posts get pushed to Facebook and Friendfeed via RSS. But what I needed was a way for the blog to share in the feel of the social web.
To this end, I tried to make my blog look more real-time. I let go of the need to categorise my posts into one of my ten clean categories and went for the more fluid convention of tags. My sidebar consists of nothing but a tag list now. This serves many purposes. Firstly, the list is a clear indication of what the blog is ‘about’. Secondly, the list is never static and keeps changing as I make new posts, with old tags coming up as and when I revisit those topics. What’s more? The tags also make for a great gateway into the deeper recesses of my blog.
Next, I implemented the Backtype Connect plugin on my WordPress installation. It finds mentions of my blog posts on Twitter (and elsewhere) and plugs them into the specific post’s comments area. I found a plugin to do the same with facebook too, but it doesn’t seem to work too well. I have also installed a new Twitter-based microforum app called Tweetboard that shows threaded Twitter conversations right on this page. You can acces it by clicking on “tweets” on the left.
The theme I am using is called Prologue and it is a WordPress theme to mimic Twitter. I made some minor adjustments to it (added a horizontal top navbar, changed some labels, implemented the post title function, etc). I chose it because it is simple, minimal, and easy to read. In addition, it lets me have a Twitter style display picture near the beginning of my posts.
This is more important than it might seem because a lot of my readership (most of it in fact) comes from Twitter and the display picture makes for a useful comfort element when that happens. I know this because I find display pictures very comforting on Twitter myself. They are like faces of people I know.
I have also changed the default URL structure on my blog so that it is very short and simple now. Only the base URL followed by a 3-digit post ID. This makes the links easy to remember and easy to post on Twitter etc. Yes, I know about URL shorteners, but you and I both know that we all hate them. I want postings on Twitter to look like they came from my blog, not a spam nest. Update: Changed the URLs to a fuller form. Pho Freak made a good point in the comments.
In the long run, I intend to keep posting all manner of stuff here. Articles and stories will continue to show up as before, but unlike the past there will also be a lot of opinion (politics, culture, life in general) just like on my Twitter stream.
I have rambled enough. Feel free to let me know what you think of the redesign and of the blog. If I have missed something, ask away.
umm, agree with most, cept the numeric article id change. it is not easy to remember at all. I mean, it might make sense to you, as you are the blog author – but i believe search engines do a better job when the URL makes a little more sense and gives an idea of what the post is about. you have to remember that the posts you write are not just for facebook or twitter, but also ones that search engines will crawl and make it easier for the average joe to get to your blog. while great content is the probably responsible for 90% of the search traffic, the other 10% is prolly made up of proper keywords for posts, short description of the post – in meta-tags and a decent url which conveys the gist of the post. something like vmohanty.com/2009/latest-blog-design makes a lot more sense.
Hope you are using one of the keywords and meta-tag plugins for wordpress like All in One SEO Pack.
Pho: You make a good point. Will see if I can alter the permalink structure without making it unduly long-winding.
Vijayendra hi,
It will be nearly a year that I had met you at SHahpur Jat Tweetup. I have been following your blog and yes it does change it looks the way a teenager does. However it has remained an exciting place to come to and flow along with the thoughts, stories, articles and essays.
Keep it going.
I am going to put up one single blog , collating my posts from my other blogs, and I am sure your post here will come handy.
Thanks,
Abhishek
Abhishek: It has been a pleasure interacting with you on Twitter too. Keep dropping by.
I agree with Pho Freak about “pretty” URLs; SEO aside, pretty permalinks are easier to remember and you can always customize them manually before you publish.
On the other aspects, I believe that blog design is a reflection of the author’s design sensibilities and perceived function so no one is a better judge than the author. Since most of your presence is on Twitter and Facebook, it makes sense to integrate them on your blog and you do a fine job of achieving that. Readers are always going to discuss your content on whatever platform they access it so no use trying them to force to comment on your blog like some do.
I wish blog comments can be integrated within Google Reader so that readers don’t have to step out of their feed readers even to comment.
I understand your rationale for the tag list on the side but it looks far too cluttered; especially with the RSS feed links. The About, Contact, and Twitter links along with RSS link has to be accessible on single posts as well. Going to the home page to access them from single post pages is one click too much. Most visitors would be entering (via Google or Twitter) your site on single post pages anyway.
Since you confessed not bothering with SEO, I’ll not comment on excerpts vs. full posts on the front page. See if the Inline More plugin interests you but it still is a click.
The default font size is a tad too small and if you restrict the number of posts on your front page, you can go up couple of sizes.
Patrix: Part of the reason behind the tag-list looking the way it does is that it gives the blog a clean, straight right margin. I already have one on the left. Margins mean a lot to me. I think they are a big readability plus.
You are right about the need for pages on post pages. Will look into that.
One reason I didn’t do excerpts was because of the save-clicks argument you made. In addition, when someone clicks on a tag link, I want them to have the whole matter right there in front of them and not as headlines or excerpts. The index.php file decides that.
Thanks for all your feedback!
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