Designing blogs can be quite tricky. You need to figure out how to get the most content into your layout while not making it look cluttered. In the run up to a new look I’m doing for a certain upcoming high profile blogger I’m going to share with you my blog design process.

Basic Instinct

To come up with the right look for a site, I use a little technique called - basic instinct.

When approached for a new job I usually do not even design a rough sketch or go through multiple variations to decide on a layout. I sit back, relax, make a cup of tea and think about what I would like this site to look like. I’m more of an imaginative person, you might have a different approach.

After imagining all kinds of scenarios in my head I then come over to my computer, or my notepad, and start drawing out the layout with the right amount of columns, header, navigation, sidebar placement etc… It’s all about the columns. Single, two or three column? Don’t even think about a fourth one!

So far my basic instinct has always led me to a good idea of how a blog, or website, should look - usually in the first try. This doesn’t mean I’m always right as instincts can be wrong too. Revisions are still done later on for varying widths and heights.

What do I imagine with my basic instinct?

I put myself in the shoes of a reader, a casual visitor or anyone else and think, What would a person expect as a first impression of this blog? How would they interact with the content? Where is the best place to put certain elements to gain their attraction? I ask myself this and more such questions to come up with a plausible answer.

You can make it as pretty as you want, but if you don’t look at your own design from a casual perspective then it will not be a successful design. The whole point of design is for it to function, not hang on a wall to be admired.

So if you cannot function well with a blog design yourself, what makes you think other readers will?

Facilitating elements

Understandably you want all kinds of elements on your blog design, but will they help your blog in any way? Are the elements part of your blog, or are you dependent on elements to keep your readers attention. Yeah, that widget will look good for like a day, then it gets boring. Get rid of it.

If any element on your blog design doesn’t facilitate itself for being there, then it probably doesn’t belong.

So the next time you try to do any design work, or feel like re-designing your blog give it some of your good old basic instinct. {You can stop thinking of Sharon Stone now}

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About the author

Hyder has been blogging for the past two years on this blog. He started Weborithm, his web company, in 2007 and along with designing blogs and websites also releases various web related products.