Why I Value Design

by Paul on April 15th, 2005

I put out a call for a designer over at Whitespace to redesign Forever Geek a couple of days ago. As of this writing the site follows the exact same template that you can see here on Work Boxers (errr, well until I just did some changes about 5 minutes ago). I don’t mind the layout or the design, but the site needs to standout on its own and make a name for itself without having the same look and feel of other sites on the network. Yes, the site gets a fair amount of traffic and has a devoted readership that is growing monthly, but I still don’t see the site going where I want it to go.

Most of this has to do with content, but another part of it has to do with the design of the site.

A Look At The Competition

I have already spoke about blogs and competition so it’s going to seem kind of weird for me to say that you still have to compete for readers. Why is that? Well some readers are loyal to a site and will not bother venturing out to other sites unless their favorite links to it. Forever Geek’s “competition” would be Slashdot. Now in no way is FG ever going to achieve the popularity of Slashdot, but that doesn’t mean it can’t get close. How does design play a role in achieving that goal though?

Let’s pretend that Slashdot (or any other site for that matter) links to an entry on FG. A reader goes there and can do 1 of 3 things.

Read the entry and exit the site never to return unless it is linked to again by another site they read.
Take a glance at the site and because of it’s design turn away and go back.
Look at the site and be impressed by it’s design so much that it intrigues him to look around a bit and maybe even bookmark the site or subscribe to its RSS feed.

Obviously we are all hoping for option #3.

A good example of how strong of a role design plays in keeping the eyes of a reader on your site is the submissions that we received for the 9rules network last week (we got 127 by the way). For sites with ugly designs it was easy to check the content real quick and move on. However, sites that had a pleasing design left us hoping to find that they had good content to go along with it (some did, some didn’t) and we would spend just a bit more time evaluating them.

Gaining Authority, Gaining Links

Let’s look at another scenario. Let’s pretend that you start a blog in a category where a competitor also decides to start a blog at the same time. All things beings equal the better designed site is going to have the edge initally on what readers and other sites perceive as the authority site.

Professional design gives the impression of professional content. A professional design gives the reader’s confidence in being at the site. Ever been to a restaraunt where you heard there was great food, but the atmosphere just put your off due to how untidy the place was? Or a grocery store that is filthy? The image you give off visually does a lot for the mind’s of your audience.

Now for any blog, content will always be king because even bad designs cannot stop great content at times. Slashdot has a horrific design, but is one of the most popular sites on the Web because it has delivered content daily for several years and that content is mostly of a high-quality. Why not complement quality content with a great design? I am not at all saying that a great design will solve all your problems and help you become rich, but a great design does make things easier.

I am getting someone to take care of the design of this site as well. Why would I do such a thing even though this site make nothing in comparison to my other sites? This site explains to you how to make money online and describes the methods that I use. Now every ‘money-making’ site that I come across that isn’t professional looking leaves me with an uneasy feeling. I don’t want anyone coming here to have that feeling.

I also want this site to be a good example in the network of sites we are setting up. Everyday I literally happen upon another blog network. It seems as though everyone is starting one since it is an easy thing to do. At the moment you have Weblogs, Inc., Gawker, and Corante at the top of the heap. I want 9rules to be up there with them, but I also want us to stand out. Design is part of that plan.

And let’s not forget what many of us have heard before I am sure:

You have to spend money, to make money.

Another topic that I didn’t touch on and will save for another entry is how design can effect your brand. And yes, every blog has a brand.

Before anyone asks, yes I have a designer on my team, but he is swamped working on other projects for the company that are more important than tweaking my sites.

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