I am in no way, shape or form a blog design expert! It took me many months to get a layout I was happy with and I know that there is certainly room for improvement. I am, however, an avid blog reader and I have decided that this gives me the authority to critique blog elements.
There has been a trend for a more magazine, editorial like layout and I am not a fan. Perhaps I am a creature of habit, but a traditional blog layout it what I enjoy. Oh how I hate it when I have to click through a slideshow to read a post! Let me just scroll down and read what I’d like instead of waiting for each slide to load. Am I alone in this? What are your feelings on slideshows?
And in the same vein of having to click through and waste those precious extra seconds, I do not like the “read more” option to continue looking at a post. I understand that if you have an image heavy post it can clog up your homepage, but I would prefer that to having to click multiple times to get the entire post.
How about when you stumble upon a blog you love and you can’t find out more about the author? Please, please, please make your about page and social media easy to find! I like you and want to connect but if you don’t make it easy I’m not going to go out of my way.
Then there are the blogs with far too many ads. An ad above the title, an ad below the title, ads on the sidebar, an ad between each post. Enough is enough! Yes it’s great to make money off of blogging, but not at the expense of the user experience.
Poor navigation is also a bummer. If I liked one of your posts, chances are I’d like to read more on the same topic. If you don’t have labels or an easy way for me to find similar posts, I’m out.
What do you think? Are my grievances valid or do I simply demand too much from the blogs I follow? What annoys you about the blogs you read? What don’t you like about my blog? Let me know in the comments!
I live for "about" pages, they really help you get a sense of the author and the blog itself. Love your points!!!
xoxo
Brooke|LookBrooke
Ease of navigation is a big one for me. I can handle most other problems as long as it's easy to navigate. I also despise slideshows! I have to admit, I'm guilty of the "read more" button, but I like to have more posts on my homepage instead of one giant image-filled post. I don't always use it though–it really depends on the mood I'm in xD Good list!
Slideshows are the absolute worst!!!! I use the read more button because my homepage looks cluttered and hard to find other posts (in my opinion)
Thank you Brooke! I love how concise your about page is 🙂
Thank you Julia! I can totally understand not wanting to clog up your homepage. What I can never understand is slideshows lol
Great point Michelle; the read more option does make it easier to scan through posts quickly and does save time if you don't want to read each one. Love how you discuss fandoms on your blog!
I agree with everything you said! I love how clean and fresh your blog is. 🙂
xoxo, Cait
Love Your Fate
I definitely use the read more button because so many of my posts are super long and it takes so long to trail through one of them to get to the next post. I definitely love the about pages though, they are often my favourite part of a blog page! Great list!
http://www.thelifeofastudenttraveller.blogspot.co.uk
Thank you Cait! I just checked out your blog and I'm a huge fan of the gold polka dots 🙂
About pages can certainly make or break a blog! It seems like the consensus is that when you write long posts a read more button is a must
I also hate it if I have to click through a slideshow to read a post. Most likely that I would leave that blog because I don't have the patience to click about 10 times just to read a post
Navellina
I totally agree! I leave blogs if I'm not able to get to the content quickly enough. I suppose that might be a need for instant gratification thing, but that's a problem for another day lol