Southwest Virginia Blogs

The Official Google Blog is of course a Blogger.com site. Google uses the site to announce new products, upgrades, and how-to information. According to their own statistics, they received: “More for the numerically inclined: 7.6 million unique visitors generated nearly 15 million pageviews this year.”

Style:
Google Blog, how I hate you… Let me count the ways:

1. Undefined link color
2. Poor layout
3. Poor ad placement (self promotion no less)
4. An overly small header which is overpowered by the sidebar
5. Poor use of color (none)
6. Did I mention poor layout?

I realize that they have a distinct style on their search engine pages, but this isn’t Google.com. This is a unique site which could have a distinct style of it’s own. It should have a distinct style of it’s own, but it doesn’t.

The only trace of color on the site is in the trademark Google logo, and the default blue links. They have carefully stripped away anything that might have given this site visual interest. Black text on a white background. (Yawn) Undefined link color. A simplistic header overpowered by a simple sidebar. Once again, someone has confused lack of style with design neutrality. This site should have been something fantastic, a credit to the forward looking company behind it. It isn’t.

A short list of the good design aspects of the site:

1. It uses a fluid layout

Did I say it was a short list?

Structure:
The Google Blog is a Blogger based site with the simplest of templates. It doesn’t even have a valid HTML Doctype declaration.

According to HTML standards, each HTML document requires a document type declaration. The “DOCTYPE” begins the HTML document and tells a validator which version of HTML to use in checking the document’s syntax. - Web Design Group

While I normally cut sites a break when their advertiser’s code is poorly written, I won’t here. I won’t, because it’s Google’s own code that’s poorly written. Their own advertisements use invalid, and poorly written code. I’m sure that there’s some obscure coding reason that they do it, but it’s annoying. People try to put together good, well written sites, and they have to put up with the gibberish that Google puts in their ads. It could be done better.

Content:
The Google blog is used to announce new products, upgrades, and how-to information for Google.com, and it’s associated sites. More or less a the public face to a public company.

What I would change:
What a subject, what I would change… Simply? Everything! Dump the whole design and start over.

The header needs to be much stronger, the logo larger.

The sidebar needs to be pushed down in prominence.

For a company known for it’s colorful logo, let’s see some color in its’ blog. Add some color to the header, and the sidebar. Consider some simple graphical elements to differentiate posts. This should be able to be done with little or no decrease in load time.

Consider the priorities for the sidebar. The first three quarters of the sidebar is taken up with links promoting other Google sites, let’s give this site some space. Leave the search feature high up, but give the archives some space too. Bring the blogroll up too. Give one good ad priority up high, and push most of the other promotional links down the page.

Define the color scheme of the links. If you want the site to have blue links, define it as blue links. Give it a distinct and clearly defined color scheme. Currently link color is left to fall to individual user’s default settings, and that’s just silly. My default settings made visited links all but illegible, and I doubt I’m the only one.

Summary:
This is a poorly designed blog, not because of the way it was designed, but because for the way it wasn’t designed. There’s nothing wrong with minimalistic design, but it needs to be designed. This is a poor representative of what otherwise appears to be a very good company. No other aspect of the Google empire has been left undesigned and neglected like this site. It’s time that this was remedied. I won’t hold my breath.

The Official Google Blog is of course a Blogger.com site. Google uses the site to announce new products, upgrades, and how-to information. According to their own statistics, they received: “More for the numerically inclined: 7.6 million unique visitors generated nearly 15 million pageviews this year.”

Style:
Google Blog, how I hate you… Let me count the ways:

1. Undefined link color
2. Poor layout
3. Poor ad placement (self promotion no less)
4. An overly small header which is overpowered by the sidebar
5. Poor use of color (none)
6. Did I mention poor layout?

I realize that they have a distinct style on their search engine pages, but this isn’t Google.com. This is a unique site which could have a distinct style of it’s own. It should have a distinct style of it’s own, but it doesn’t.

The only trace of color on the site is in the trademark Google logo, and the default blue links. They have carefully stripped away anything that might have given this site visual interest. Black text on a white background. (Yawn) Undefined link color. A simplistic header overpowered by a simple sidebar. Once again, someone has confused lack of style with design neutrality. This site should have been something fantastic, a credit to the forward looking company behind it. It isn’t.

A short list of the good design aspects of the site:

1. It uses a fluid layout

Did I say it was a short list?

Structure:
The Google Blog is a Blogger based site with the simplest of templates. It doesn’t even have a valid HTML Doctype declaration.

According to HTML standards, each HTML document requires a document type declaration. The “DOCTYPE” begins the HTML document and tells a validator which version of HTML to use in checking the document’s syntax. - Web Design Group

While I normally cut sites a break when their advertiser’s code is poorly written, I won’t here. I won’t, because it’s Google’s own code that’s poorly written. Their own advertisements use invalid, and poorly written code. I’m sure that there’s some obscure coding reason that they do it, but it’s annoying. People try to put together good, well written sites, and they have to put up with the gibberish that Google puts in their ads. It could be done better.

Content:
The Google blog is used to announce new products, upgrades, and how-to information for Google.com, and it’s associated sites. More or less a the public face to a public company.

What I would change:
What a subject, what I would change… Simply? Everything! Dump the whole design and start over.

The header needs to be much stronger, the logo larger.

The sidebar needs to be pushed down in prominence.

For a company known for it’s colorful logo, let’s see some color in its’ blog. Add some color to the header, and the sidebar. Consider some simple graphical elements to differentiate posts. This should be able to be done with little or no decrease in load time.

Consider the priorities for the sidebar. The first three quarters of the sidebar is taken up with links promoting other Google sites, let’s give this site some space. Leave the search feature high up, but give the archives some space too. Bring the blogroll up too. Give one good ad priority up high, and push most of the other promotional links down the page.

Define the color scheme of the links. If you want the site to have blue links, define it as blue links. Give it a distinct and clearly defined color scheme. Currently link color is left to fall to individual user’s default settings, and that’s just silly. My default settings made visited links all but illegible, and I doubt I’m the only one.

Summary:
This is a poorly designed blog, not because of the way it was designed, but because for the way it wasn’t designed. There’s nothing wrong with minimalistic design, but it needs to be designed. This is a poor representative of what otherwise appears to be a very good company. No other aspect of the Google empire has been left undesigned and neglected like this site. It’s time that this was remedied. I won’t hold my breath.

After 630 odd posts, it might seem an odd time to do an “about me” post, but it’s been on my to-do list since I lost my Blogger profile in the transition to WordPress.

I’m a professional graphic and web designer currently working in SW Virginia. I’ve been doing graphic design for print almost fourteen years. Web design became a major part of my work two and a half years ago.

I grew up in a very small town, one of fifteen in my high school class. My family has a strong belief in the value of an education, with a large percentage of them being teachers, doctors, or artists. I was undecided on which path to take and ended up with a BS degree in Animal Science and a BA in Sculpture.

Graphic design, as you can tell from the subtitle on this blog (it currently reads “Random mutterings of a wandering cowboy turned graphic designer”) wasn’t my first career choice. My first job, when I was 14, was working with cattle from horseback. I loved it. I had every intention of spending my life working with horses… Time passes, things change.

I found I had to reevaluate my choices when, in my mid-twenties, I was preparing to get married. Breaking horses, as I’d been doing since my late teens, just wasn’t a viable profession any more. I’d had three concussions, a back injury, various torn ligaments, and some bones in my foot fused already and retirement wasn’t exactly looming near. I started looking for another career. Something that would allow me to fuse my education with my passion for art. I lucked upon a graphic design job with someone who liked to train his own designers. He recognized in me something I didn’t see myself, the designer. It was a fantastic stroke of luck, and I’ll be forever grateful for his training.

I’m not by nature a talkative type, my wife would tell you that I act like I have a lifetime quota on words and I’m trying not to run out too early. I do however, like to say what I think. I took up blogging because I have almost exclusively worked where I was one of few if not the only, designer. Blogging not only allows me a place to speak my mind, but also allows me to be a part of a community of people who have similar interests. While I’m often the lone designer at work, I’m one among many online. This is something that I’ve found that I appreciate.

While I make an effort to focus on design and design related subjects, I’m afraid that I often wander off topic. You’ll notice for instance, that I veer into discussing politics on regular basis. Bare with me, and I come back to discussing graphic and web design before too long.

I’m a problem solver by nature, I’m fascinated by almost any sort of puzzle. Trouble shooting design problems is a particular pleasure for me. I often find myself giving people unsolicited advice on how to fix problems on their sites that they aren’t even aware of. I’ve recently started a series on Design Review to take advantage of that. This series is intended to give people a look into how a designer sees design.

My restless nature, and my wife’s career choices, have moved us around the country in the last decade. From my native Washington, I’ve worked in Idaho, Maryland and now Virginia. I’ve designed things varying from newspaper ads to cookbooks and furniture. I even designed custom carpet for a while. I find print design the most interesting, though the technical challenge of web design has a strong appeal as well. I think I’ll pass on custom carpet in the future. I’ve enjoyed the the journey, I’ve enjoyed each place I’ve lived. While I’d like to find a place to settle down, another move is being considered as I write this. Where next? I don’t know yet, maybe the Midwest. We’ll see where this road leads.

Consider this post to be guest book of sorts. If you’re reading this, drop me a comment. Let me know who you are, and where you’re from. I’m always interested in seeing who stops by.

After 630 odd posts, it might seem an odd time to do an “about me” post, but it’s been on my to-do list since I lost my Blogger profile in the transition to WordPress.

I’m a professional graphic and web designer currently working in SW Virginia. I’ve been doing graphic design for print almost fourteen years. Web design became a major part of my work two and a half years ago.

I grew up in a very small town, one of fifteen in my high school class. My family has a strong belief in the value of an education, with a large percentage of them being teachers, doctors, or artists. I was undecided on which path to take and ended up with a BS degree in Animal Science and a BA in Sculpture.

Graphic design, as you can tell from the subtitle on this blog (it currently reads “Random mutterings of a wandering cowboy turned graphic designer”) wasn’t my first career choice. My first job, when I was 14, was working with cattle from horseback. I loved it. I had every intention of spending my life working with horses… Time passes, things change.

I found I had to reevaluate my choices when, in my mid-twenties, I was preparing to get married. Breaking horses, as I’d been doing since my late teens, just wasn’t a viable profession any more. I’d had three concussions, a back injury, various torn ligaments, and some bones in my foot fused already and retirement wasn’t exactly looming near. I started looking for another career. Something that would allow me to fuse my education with my passion for art. I lucked upon a graphic design job with someone who liked to train his own designers. He recognized in me something I didn’t see myself, the designer. It was a fantastic stroke of luck, and I’ll be forever grateful for his training.

I’m not by nature a talkative type, my wife would tell you that I act like I have a lifetime quota on words and I’m trying not to run out too early. I do however, like to say what I think. I took up blogging because I have almost exclusively worked where I was one of few if not the only, designer. Blogging not only allows me a place to speak my mind, but also allows me to be a part of a community of people who have similar interests. While I’m often the lone designer at work, I’m one among many online. This is something that I’ve found that I appreciate.

While I make an effort to focus on design and design related subjects, I’m afraid that I often wander off topic. You’ll notice for instance, that I veer into discussing politics on regular basis. Bare with me, and I come back to discussing graphic and web design before too long.

I’m a problem solver by nature, I’m fascinated by almost any sort of puzzle. Trouble shooting design problems is a particular pleasure for me. I often find myself giving people unsolicited advice on how to fix problems on their sites that they aren’t even aware of. I’ve recently started a series on Design Review to take advantage of that. This series is intended to give people a look into how a designer sees design.

My restless nature, and my wife’s career choices, have moved us around the country in the last decade. From my native Washington, I’ve worked in Idaho, Maryland and now Virginia. I’ve designed things varying from newspaper ads to cookbooks and furniture. I even designed custom carpet for a while. I find print design the most interesting, though the technical challenge of web design has a strong appeal as well. I think I’ll pass on custom carpet in the future. I’ve enjoyed the the journey, I’ve enjoyed each place I’ve lived. While I’d like to find a place to settle down, another move is being considered as I write this. Where next? I don’t know yet, maybe the Midwest. We’ll see where this road leads.

Consider this post to be guest book of sorts. If you’re reading this, drop me a comment. Let me know who you are, and where you’re from. I’m always interested in seeing who stops by.

I was feeling pretty good this morning, so I thought I’d risk life and limb today and review the Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler. According to Google Analytics, they have 6,380,170 hits as of this post.

Style:
Love it or hate it, the Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler has a distinct style. Strongly black and red, with content in white columns, it incorporates a fluid three column layout on the home page, with two columns on interior pages. While the content columns float free of a containing background in a manner that I criticized Argghhh! for in my last review, it works here. The solid background and fluid layout act as the container, giving it the grounded look I thought was needed at Argghhh!.

The use of color is well done, with a strong black background and red used liberally as an accent. (The only liberal aspect you’re likely to find on this site.) Gray blockquotes with red outlines nicely compliment this simple color scheme. The links are blue, which manages to be clearly visible without being overpowering.

Graphics are well done in a very unified theme.

Structure:
The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler is a WordPress site with an entirely CSS layout. The site structure is well done and should be represented well in any modern browser. Load time is high with 48.94 seconds on DSL or 157.08 seconds on 56K modem. This is quite high by blog standards and should be improved upon. A lot of the load time is caused by the high number of images. There were 72 images on the homepage when I tested it.

The CSS is well thought out and complete, though it could use a little clean up work. It has a some non-standard coding that should be fixed or removed.

While the site structure is good, the WordPress theme could use some minor updates. A quick validation check of the home page shows no true errors, but 442 warnings. Most of them are insignificant, but should be easy to fix too. A site with this level of traffic should really have this fixed. Most of them seem to be minor bits of extraneous code which could be easily removed from the base PHP of the theme. There is also some misuse of the CSS element ID which should be fixed. The ID element is used to describe a unique element which can occur once on a page, but is being used multiple times here.

While most if not all of the questionable code I’m seeing is not in the posts themselves, I’m concerned that it may affect RSS feeds and possibly the long term stability of the site. Without correction, what should be minor changes to the CSS or PHP could have much more dramatic effects than intended. The theme’s PHP and CSS should be carefully checked and cleaned of offending and extraneous bits.

Content:
It is politically off the charts to the right and pulls no punches. The authors’ vocabulary of obscene and profane language is vast and well used. This site doesn’t tolerate idiots of any stripe. While its authors will openly mock and ridicule anyone they feel is less than honest or sincere about their beliefs and/or politics, they are reasonably tolerant of polite disagreement. That said, their commenters are not always so polite.

What would I change:
I’d update the PHP to remove extraneous code.

I’d lower the number of images and optimize their use in an effort to decrease load time. Some improvement should be possible with little or no effect on the overall style.

I’d make minor changes to the CSS to make it more closely meet modern standards.

I’d add High Desert Wanderer to the blogroll, because… it appears to be tragically missing.

Summary:
While the Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler has a very distinct style, minor changes should be made to images, CSS and PHP in order improve load time and to make it more closely meet modern web standards.

As I said before, the Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler has a distinct style. By intention or accident, a unique and very marketable brand has been created here. Great care should be taken to maintain this style while improvements are being made.

Time has come for a review of Argghhh! The Home Of Two Of Jonah’s Military Guys… Generally try to avoid criticizing heavily armed people, but John and Company at Argghhh! are a good bunch. They are currently averaging 1,519 hits per day.

Style:
At first glance Argghhh! appears to be disorganized and cluttered. This first impression isn’t entirely unfounded. It does have a unique and distinct style though. This style is created by a mixture of military and military inspired colors and images.

The cluttered appearance is caused by two things:

• The first is the sidebars, which are a little too narrow for their content. The use of outlines around all sidebar content items exaggerates this problem.
• The second is the lack of a unified background linking the two sidebars with the content column. While there is a background image, this camouflage pattern showing between the columns leaves all three columns floating and visually unanchored.

The use of color and imagery to give a military air to the site is well done.

I like the use of the rotating images in the header. It gives each of the primary bloggers a chance to have their header in place. It’s a nice touch.

Structure:
Argghhh! has an entirely CSS layout. It’s CSS is a little simpler than I might have done, but I wouldn’t consider that a negative. The CSS and site structure are more than adequate and should reliably present the site in any modern browser. Load time is high with 55.14 seconds on DSL or 179.13 seconds on 56K modem. This is quite long by blog standards and should be improved upon. A lot of the load time is caused by non-optimized images and images loading from other locations.

The site could use some updating however. Mostly small changes to the templates and CSS to make things load a little smoother. The site is using some depracated code, and would be better served with some updates.

Content:
The content is what you’d expect from a group of intelligent and well spoken ex-military guys. Their writing is about the military and subjects of interest to those who are or have been in the military. Due mostly to quality writing and humor, and despite it’s obvious military theme, this site appeals to a wide range of people. It is a great source of military history, thought, and opinion.

What would I change:
I’d update the structure to make it more compliant with current web standards. A site with this much traffic needs to work well.

I’d optimize images in an effort to decrease load time. I’d also bring as many images as possible that are loading from remote sites into this site. This should also lower load time.

Alter sidebar images, or the sidebars themselves in an effort to keep contents from overlapping outside of the sidebars.

Remove all or most of the outlines on objects within the sidebars in an effort to give them a more organized and structured appearance.

Make some minor changes to the sidebar styles in order to improve their usability.

Add a unifying background between columns. This will ground the columns and give the site a more unified and organized appearance.

Make some small improvements to the CSS in an effort to accentuate the current style. The style is interesting and very appropriate for the site, but could be better. I’d make it more of what it is, not something different.

I’d look into improving the performance of the rotating header images. Possibly with identical function, possibly with something slightly different. I’m not sure if it would be beneficial, but it’s worth considering if I could maintain or improve function while improving load time.

I’d add High Desert Wanderer to the Argghhh! blogroll, because… I could. Hey, if we’re considering hypothetical changes, why skimp?

Summary:
Argghhh! is a site with an interesting style and quality content. It could though, stand some structural and stylistic improvements. Load time is unnecessarily high and needs to be improved upon. The thing to keep in mind is that this is a functioning site. It may not be the best looking, but it already has good traffic. Any improvements should focus on improving function while maintaining and improving the current style. Care should be taken not to sacrifice current function for future improvement.

Time has come for a review of Argghhh! The Home Of Two Of Jonah’s Military Guys… Generally try to avoid criticizing heavily armed people, but John and Company at Argghhh! are a good bunch. They are currently averaging 1,519 hits per day.

Style:
At first glance Argghhh! appears to be disorganized and cluttered. This first impression isn’t entirely unfounded. It does have a unique and distinct style though. This style is created by a mixture of military and military inspired colors and images.

The cluttered appearance is caused by two things:

• The first is the sidebars, which are a little too narrow for their content. The use of outlines around all sidebar content items exaggerates this problem.
• The second is the lack of a unified background linking the two sidebars with the content column. While there is a background image, this camouflage pattern showing between the columns leaves all three columns floating and visually unanchored.

The use of color and imagery to give a military air to the site is well done.

I like the use of the rotating images in the header. It gives each of the primary bloggers a chance to have their header in place. It’s a nice touch.

Structure:
Argghhh! has an entirely CSS layout. It’s CSS is a little simpler than I might have done, but I wouldn’t consider that a negative. The CSS and site structure are more than adequate and should reliably present the site in any modern browser. Load time is high with 55.14 seconds on DSL or 179.13 seconds on 56K modem. This is quite long by blog standards and should be improved upon. A lot of the load time is caused by non-optimized images and images loading from other locations.

The site could use some updating however. Mostly small changes to the templates and CSS to make things load a little smoother. The site is using some depracated code, and would be better served with some updates.

Content:
The content is what you’d expect from a group of intelligent and well spoken ex-military guys. Their writing is about the military and subjects of interest to those who are or have been in the military. Due mostly to quality writing and humor, and despite it’s obvious military theme, this site appeals to a wide range of people. It is a great source of military history, thought, and opinion.

What would I change:
I’d update the structure to make it more compliant with current web standards. A site with this much traffic needs to work well.

I’d optimize images in an effort to decrease load time. I’d also bring as many images as possible that are loading from remote sites into this site. This should also lower load time.

Alter sidebar images, or the sidebars themselves in an effort to keep contents from overlapping outside of the sidebars.

Remove all or most of the outlines on objects within the sidebars in an effort to give them a more organized and structured appearance.

Make some minor changes to the sidebar styles in order to improve their usability.

Add a unifying background between columns. This will ground the columns and give the site a more unified and organized appearance.

Make some small improvements to the CSS in an effort to accentuate the current style. The style is interesting and very appropriate for the site, but could be better. I’d make it more of what it is, not something different.

I’d look into improving the performance of the rotating header images. Possibly with identical function, possibly with something slightly different. I’m not sure if it would be beneficial, but it’s worth considering if I could maintain or improve function while improving load time.

I’d add High Desert Wanderer to the Argghhh! blogroll, because… I could. Hey, if we’re considering hypothetical changes, why skimp?

Summary:
Argghhh! is a site with an interesting style and quality content. It could though, stand some structural and stylistic improvements. Load time is unnecessarily high and needs to be improved upon. The thing to keep in mind is that this is a functioning site. It may not be the best looking, but it already has good traffic. Any improvements should focus on improving function while maintaining and improving the current style. Care should be taken not to sacrifice current function for future improvement.

Why should you regularly review the design and structure of your site? Because presentation is very important. I see sites on a regular basis that have serious flaws. Flaws with structure, flaws with RSS, images, etc. These flaws will keep the authors from getting their message, whatever it is, to at least some of the people who want to see it. Consider RSS feeds. If you have readers on your site that view the site via RSS, and your RSS doesn’t reliably work, some of those people will stop reading.

The point of this Design Review series is to make people think about design and site structure. A website is like a person giving a presentation. Presentation effects a readers perception of the validity of the message. You make a poor presentation, people won’t be interested and won’t believe in you. Some of them might not even hear or understand the message at all.

So, consider your design. Does it fit you? Does it reflect who you are and the message you’d like to pass on? Does your site reliably work in all common browser? Do your RSS feeds work properly? All these things should be reviewed regularly to make sure your presentation is what you want it to be.

Update:
If you don’t think presentation is important, consider what would you think a fairly good presentation given by a woman in a very nice business suit. Now consider the same presentation given by a man in hiking boots, argyle socks, and a poorly fitting cocktail dress. Presentation does make a difference.

Why should you regularly review the design and structure of your site? Because presentation is very important. I see sites on a regular basis that have serious flaws. Flaws with structure, flaws with RSS, images, etc. These flaws will keep the authors from getting their message, whatever it is, to at least some of the people who want to see it. Consider RSS feeds. If you have readers on your site that view the site via RSS, and your RSS doesn’t reliably work, some of those people will stop reading.

The point of this Design Review series is to make people think about design and site structure. A website is like a person giving a presentation. Presentation effects a readers perception of the validity of the message. You make a poor presentation, people won’t be interested and won’t believe in you. Some of them might not even hear or understand the message at all.

So, consider your design. Does it fit you? Does it reflect who you are and the message you’d like to pass on? Does your site reliably work in all common browser? Do your RSS feeds work properly? All these things should be reviewed regularly to make sure your presentation is what you want it to be.

Update:
If you don’t think presentation is important, consider what would you think a fairly good presentation given by a woman in a very nice business suit. Now consider the same presentation given by a man in hiking boots, argyle socks, and a poorly fitting cocktail dress. Presentation does make a difference.

I’m not going to take the time for a full review of Tom DeLay.com, it’s just not worth my time, but I thought I’d point out a couple of problems.

Problem 1 - Boring!
The site has very little visual interest. The only graphic element in the design is a poorly done header image containing a picture of Tom DeLay. Yawn. If you don’t want to take the time to do something interesting, stick with a default template of some kind. Then at least we’ll know you don’t care.

Problem 2 - Comments
What I found objectionable about the comments is that there isn’t a single blogger’s URL showing anywhere. The only way to find out if the commenter is a blogger is to click on their name and go to a second page on the site which tells you if they left a URL. Annoying, and a little misleading. Showing a blogger’s URL is a simple way of putting the comments in the context of their other writing. By putting them one step away from the comments, you are removing this context.

In my experience, bloggers make up a significant percentage of commenters. Here though, I only managed to find two bloggers, William Teach and Becky, who left their URLs. It seems unlikely that all these are all people without blogs. Something odd is going on there. Either they’re being filtered (a note at the bottom of the comment page suggested this might be the case) or there is something odd about the way the site is functioning that is filtering out most of the URLs. Either way, the comments do not appear to be working as they should.

Problem 3 - Links
Far and away the biggest problem I see is the links in the content section of the blog. They’re hidden. Even in the small image I’ve placed above, the links should be at least partially visible. Sure you couldn’t read the text at that size, but the links should be bold, or italic, or colored. Anything to make them stand out from the regular text. They don’t stand out though. The text style of links is identical to the rest of the text unless you hover your mouse over a link. The image above contains three links in those first few paragraphs, but you’d have to hunt to find them.

The content links also have a flaw that’s a pet peeve of mine. Links are regular weight when there is no mouse over, but bold weight when hovered over. This causes the text to move whenever a link is “found”. Scroll your mouse down the page and each link passed over will make the text move. You might want to take Dramamine before you try that.

Summary:
This is a poorly designed site with little visual interest. The comment section is of questionable value, with commenter’s URLs placed one step away or missing. The link styles are horribly done. They are difficult to find inline and cause the text to shift in an annoying way when found. Everyone should strive to set an example. Unfortunately, TomDeLay.com is striving to be a bad example.

h/t to Raising Farrahzona » A Blog Roll I Will Never Be On for pointing out the site. I’d heard it existed, but hadn’t seen it yet.

I’m not going to take the time for a full review of Tom DeLay.com, it’s just not worth my time, but I thought I’d point out a couple of problems.

Problem 1 - Boring!
The site has very little visual interest. The only graphic element in the design is a poorly done header image containing a picture of Tom DeLay. Yawn. If you don’t want to take the time to do something interesting, stick with a default template of some kind. Then at least we’ll know you don’t care.

Problem 2 - Comments
What I found objectionable about the comments is that there isn’t a single blogger’s URL showing anywhere. The only way to find out if the commenter is a blogger is to click on their name and go to a second page on the site which tells you if they left a URL. Annoying, and a little misleading. Showing a blogger’s URL is a simple way of putting the comments in the context of their other writing. By putting them one step away from the comments, you are removing this context.

In my experience, bloggers make up a significant percentage of commenters. Here though, I only managed to find two bloggers, William Teach and Becky, who left their URLs. It seems unlikely that all these are all people without blogs. Something odd is going on there. Either they’re being filtered (a note at the bottom of the comment page suggested this might be the case) or there is something odd about the way the site is functioning that is filtering out most of the URLs. Either way, the comments do not appear to be working as they should.

Problem 3 - Links
Far and away the biggest problem I see is the links in the content section of the blog. They’re hidden. Even in the small image I’ve placed above, the links should be at least partially visible. Sure you couldn’t read the text at that size, but the links should be bold, or italic, or colored. Anything to make them stand out from the regular text. They don’t stand out though. The text style of links is identical to the rest of the text unless you hover your mouse over a link. The image above contains three links in those first few paragraphs, but you’d have to hunt to find them.

The content links also have a flaw that’s a pet peeve of mine. Links are regular weight when there is no mouse over, but bold weight when hovered over. This causes the text to move whenever a link is “found”. Scroll your mouse down the page and each link passed over will make the text move. You might want to take Dramamine before you try that.

Summary:
This is a poorly designed site with little visual interest. The comment section is of questionable value, with commenter’s URLs placed one step away or missing. The link styles are horribly done. They are difficult to find inline and cause the text to shift in an annoying way when found. Everyone should strive to set an example. Unfortunately, TomDeLay.com is striving to be a bad example.

h/t to Raising Farrahzona » A Blog Roll I Will Never Be On for pointing out the site. I’d heard it existed, but hadn’t seen it yet.

I’m not going to take the time for a full review of Tom DeLay.com, it’s just not worth my time, but I thought I’d point out a couple of problems.

Problem 1 - Boring!
The site has very little visual interest. The only graphic element in the design is a poorly done header image containing a picture of Tom DeLay. Yawn. If you don’t want to take the time to do something interesting, stick with a default template of some kind. Then at least we’ll know you don’t care.

Problem 2 - Comments
What I found objectionable about the comments is that there isn’t a single blogger’s URL showing anywhere. The only way to find out if the commenter is a blogger is to click on their name and go to a second page on the site which tells you if they left a URL. Annoying, and a little misleading. Showing a blogger’s URL is a simple way of putting the comments in the context of their other writing. By putting them one step away from the comments, you are removing this context.

In my experience, bloggers make up a significant percentage of commenters. Here though, I only managed to find two bloggers, William Teach and Becky, who left their URLs. It seems unlikely that all these are all people without blogs. Something odd is going on there. Either they’re being filtered (a note at the bottom of the comment page suggested this might be the case) or there is something odd about the way the site is functioning that is filtering out most of the URLs. Either way, the comments do not appear to be working as they should.

Problem 3 - Links
Far and away the biggest problem I see is the links in the content section of the blog. They’re hidden. Even in the small image I’ve placed above, the links should be at least partially visible. Sure you couldn’t read the text at that size, but the links should be bold, or italic, or colored. Anything to make them stand out from the regular text. They don’t stand out though. The text style of links is identical to the rest of the text unless you hover your mouse over a link. The image above contains three links in those first few paragraphs, but you’d have to hunt to find them.

The content links also have a flaw that’s a pet peeve of mine. Links are regular weight when there is no mouse over, but bold weight when hovered over. This causes the text to move whenever a link is “found”. Scroll your mouse down the page and each link passed over will make the text move. You might want to take Dramamine before you try that.

Summary:
This is a poorly designed site with little visual interest. The comment section is of questionable value, with commenter’s URLs placed one step away or missing. The link styles are horribly done. They are difficult to find inline and cause the text to shift in an annoying way when found. Everyone should strive to set an example. Unfortunately, TomDeLay.com is striving to be a bad example.

h/t to Raising Farrahzona » A Blog Roll I Will Never Be On for pointing out the site. I’d heard it existed, but hadn’t seen it yet.

Staying with the “starting from the top” theme, my second design review subject is Michelle Malkin’s Internet broadcast site, Hot Air. A powerhouse conservative blog which is currently averaging 67,917 hits per day.

Style:
The content packed layout was designed by The Blog Studio with a minimalist color scheme. It is a clean black and white design, with a moderate use of gray and some red highlights. Prominent advertising does not compete with content.

The overall style of the blog really quite good. The whimsical use of graphics and the Cox & Forkum logo in particular are well suited to the writing style of the blog.

The details of the site were not overlooked. The typography is well done, and a careful use of negative space makes the text flow nicely.

On a negative note, the blockquotes crowd their contained text on the top and bottom of each quote in the blog posts which I find a little annoying. They also crowd the left edge of the quotes in the comments, which I find more annoying. Both of those aspects are more a matter of personal taste than anything though. The CSS in general is actually fairly elegant.

Structure:
This WordPress powered site is a completely CSS layout as you’d expect. The structural framework appears very solid, and any modern browser would reliably represent it. Load time is high with 39.86 seconds on DSL or 127.88 seconds on 56K modem.This is a little more than twice as long as my site’s current theme which has a 17 second load time on DSL. This bandwidth drain is mostly caused by the high level of graphics. When I tested the load time, HotAir’s home page contained 66 images.

There is a little sloppy coding to clean up, but it seems to be almost exclusively related to advertising. This is an extremely minor point that would be very unlikely to affect anything. The blog posting code is very clean as are the resulting RSS feeds.

Content:
Content is a Conservative mix of politics and humor. It is graphically rich and updated frequently. In addition to the writing, three or four episodes of Vent, a Michelle Malkin vlog, are posted weekly.

Content is well presented in a clear and uncrowded layout. Very nice use of negative space with the blog posts.

What would I change:
The first thing I would try to change would be the load time. A difficult task that I’m not sure I would have much success with. This site is built around it’s use of graphics and the resulting load time would be difficult to improve upon. The load time definitely does not warrant changing the site style.

I’d make an attempt to clean up the advertisers code too, but this also could be futile. Small corrections are likely possible, but not all will be correctable. This is more annoying than anything. As a perfectionist at heart, I’d like things like this to be perfect, but it isn’t likely to happen any time soon.

Final summary:
This is a clever design, beautifully executed. It’s one of the best blog designs I’ve seen in terms of crafting the design to suit both the purpose and the authors. Well built, well organized, and just a touch of whimsy.

Nothing like starting from the top, so my first review is going to be Daily Kos. Daily Kos is the 600 pound gorilla of blogs, currently averaging 432,000 hits a day.

Style:
The overall design is simple, using a very clean orange on white color scheme. Simple isn’t a criticism, it’s just not a graphically complex site. Graphics can be a huge bandwidth drain if done wrong or excessively.

The layout is a little cluttered. Mostly by an entire row of advertising as well as the traditional row of links. It does have a style switcher which allows for a wider version of the site, but the width difference is minimal. The switcher is a nice idea, but the execution of it isn’t what it should be.

The Daily Kos logo isn’t really to my taste, but it’s well designed and executed. It works well with the site.

The CSS is well thought out and quite detailed. I particularly like how the smaller details were handled. The blockquotes are nice and clearly differentiated, and the section breaks are good as well. The difference between good CSS and great CSS is in the details, and this one is very good. Overall I give the CSS great marks, it’s a credit to whoever wrote it.

Structure:
This CSS designed site is powered by Scoop. It has a good structural framework. It should reliably work on any modern browser. Load time is a very reasonable 8.85 seconds on DSL or 27.08 seconds on 56K modem. This is almost twice as fast as my site’s current theme which has a 17 second load time on DSL. Quality servers would likely be a factor there, but Kos’ very streamlined design is a factor as well.

I’d give Daily Kos negative marks for it’s random sloppy coding, but that appears to be almost exclusively in the advertising and posting rather than the basic structure of the site. Mr. Moulitsas should slap the hands of a few of his authors and that would be cleaned up. I suspect that a few of the authors are writing their posts in Microsoft Word and pasting it into their posts. That tends to add some odd and sloppy coding. No really significant errors that I can see.

Content:
Mr. Moulitsas runs a tight ship. While I don’t care for the writing, the content is well presented.

The site organization is reasonably good. I would think that most traffic doesn’t pass far beyond the front page, but links elsewhere are clearly marked.

What would I change:
While I can see why Mr. Moulitsas dedicates so much space to his advertisers (this is his livelihood after all) I’d try to come up with another option. I would reevaluate the placement of ads with an eye towards increasing the footprint of content. Thigns I would consider would be:

• Alternating ads with links in a single row sidebar
• Small horizontal ads between posts
• Fewer ads - a poor choice, but increased demand could increase costs to compensate for the reduced number

Any of these options would allow me to dedicate more space to the content which is key to readership.

I would also consider making it a flexible width site so that readers with higher resolution monitors can benefit from it. Adding a minimum width to the CSS would keep the site from compressing too much in smaller windows. There are javascript options for min-width as well.

I would crack down on the poor coding of some of the authors. While I am not familiar with the a href=”http://scoop.kuro5hin.org/”>Scoop platform, any reliable platform should produce reasonably clean code. The sloppiness I’m seeing in the posting is likely coming from an outside source like MS Word. Either that or some of the authors are not as familiar with XHTML as they think they are. This is of course an extremely minor point, but these little coding errors add up, and can cause problems down the road. I’d be most concerned with the coding errors effects on the RSS feeds which are much less forgiving than the traditional site.

Any alterations I would make to correct these issues would be designed to add to the site’s current style rather than altering it. The site’s current style is fairly good, and very appropriate for a high traffic site. Clarifying the current style by subtly, or not so subtly, altering the site’s current layout. Sacrificing the content for advertising space isn’t where to go. Without content, you have no site. Let the style and the content take their place in the forefront where they belong.

This site’s style doesn’t need to be redesigned, but redefined. One of the side effects of a redefining the style would be to increase the prominence of the Daily Kos logo and signature style. This could have beneficial effects on logo recognition and overall branding efforts. While this wouldn’t guarantee increases in merchandise sales, it sure wouldn’t hurt them.

To summarize, it is a good overall design that is structurally well executed. Stylistically, the encroaching advertising has started to take over the layout. Clarifying the design would be a good idea.

I should have started this sooner, but better late than never. Design Reviews. I’ll focus on website design primarily, but we’ll see where it goes. Since I’m rarely called humble, I thought I’d start right at the top. Starting in the next day or two I’ll be doing design reviews of some of the more popular blogs. Don’t have a popular site? Don’t think you’re safe, because I’ll be going there too. Reviews will cover these areas:

• Style - A straight judgment on appearance. Good, bad, or dear God what happened here.
• Structure - Regardless of style, does the site have good bones.
• Content - Quality of content, regardless of subject.
• What would I change - Criticism, (hopefully constructive) on what’s wrong, what’s right, and how I’d improve it.
• Review topics are of course, subject to change.

If you have a site that you want reviewed, feel free to make suggestions. If you don’t want your site reviewed… I’ll accept cash, check, and most major credit cards.

This was one of the original concepts behind this blog, but it’s something I’ve never felt ready to start. I’d like to thank Mr. Guzman for kicking me into gear with a post on this subject a few months ago. I’m not linking because his site (samguzman.com?) doesn’t currently seem to be online. If this changes, please let me know and I’ll link to you properly.