When it comes to blog designs, there’s an unlimited number of routes you can take to get the design you’re looking for. Some people use a basic Blogger design, some use Wordpress themes and other people have professional designers construct them a blog design from scratch. Becuase of financial reasons I use a Wordpress theme that I edited, but eventually I’d like to be able to get a custom design done. In order to learn a bit more about blog designs, I contacted my buddy Ben Bleikamp and picked his brain for some design knowledge.
- The blue, default WordPress template is actually a decent design. It’s simple, it’s clean, and it’s easy to read. My first reaction when I see the theme is that the blog must be brand new. If I notice that there are several months worth of posts on the blog, my second reaction tends to be that they must have made a mistake and somehow deactivated their regular template. If you’re blogging for any reason other than to keep friends and family updated on what is going on in your life, get rid of that default WordPress template as quickly as possible.
You got the gig to redesign ProBlogger.net. How many designs and reworks did it take you to get the final scheme?
- How many did I show Darren? I think 3 or 4. We did a couple of really basic mock ups, then I got a good idea and ran with it and we both agreed it would work (it’s the header area that you see now – the navigation, logo, etc… Working on my own, I trashed probably 10, 15…maybe even 20 designs. The thing is, I don’t do full designs in Photoshop, a significant portion of my design process happens while I’m coding – I change the way information is organized, the way the site flows, etc. all with XHTML and CSS – not Photoshop.
The market for blog designs and web design in general is very diverse. Some people charge $100, while others can charge upwards of five figures. What do you think are the biggest differences between designer’s at each price range?
- You get what you pay for. The designers and developers that I know and respect all charge upwards of $75/hour for designing, coding, etc. People who won’t pay more than $500-$800 for a blog design are basically getting reworked public themes – I could produce most of the designs in a few days. I generally charge $2500-$5000 for a blog design. I start each design from scratch, I approach each project with a question of “How will I solve their problems?” Design isn’t about making things look pretty – it’s about information architecture, solving problems, and making sure users can navigate a site and find relevant information. If you want to work with a professional you need to pay them what they’re worth. Plenty of people can learn to mess around in Photoshop and throw WordPress template tags into a layout. Spending time thinking about typography, information architecture, and information design is what designers get paid to do.
Many people in the poker industry get a lot of their blog traffic from search engines. However a lot of blog designers don’t take search engine optimization into account when they make a design. Do you think that designing with SEO in mind will become required knowledge in the near future?
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When I code my designs, the clients don’t always understand the benefits they’re getting in terms of SEO. I know quite a bit about the topic, I know the best practices, and I know how to integrate those into WordPress. Obviouslye a client like Darren Rowse knows as much or more than I do, so we spent a decent amount of time making sure we figured out what was “best” in terms of search engine rankings. But Darren isn’t the type of person who needs it the most – the people who should be spending a lot of time are those with brand new blogs and web sites – they have a chance to make the best possible choices in URL structure, site structure, etc. to effect their SE rankings right off the bat. It’s important for designers who are doing all of their own coding to know the basics of SEO. Knowing how to make dynamic titles, dynamic meta tags, and understanding when to use the tag are the most important points.
I have no knowledge about how design and coding work together. For all the clueless webmasters out there, give us an idea of how it all comes together.
- Most designers will create a perfect mockup in Photoshop, slice up that mockup, and reproduce it exactly with XHTML and CSS. That’s nice and it’s easy to do – assign some fixed widths, ignore the fact that many internet users resize text, and don’t worry so much about validating code. Working with dynamic content is challenging because you are constantly preparing your design for “what ifs” of dynamic content – what if this title runs two lines, what if the post’s excerpt is longer or shorter than my test content, etc. Because of those “what ifs” I spend a lot of my ‘design time’ working with code. I try to future proof designs and make it easy for a client to add or remove content down the line. This goes back to the purpose of good design: solve problems. I try to make sure all of my designs can have text resized at least twice without breaking. I give bloggers specific classes for images so they don’t have to worry about styles and the images always get worked into the site design without a hitch.
Most of the people who read my site work with freelance designers. What’s the best way to go about working with a freelance designer so that you both get what you want and theres no miscommunication?
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The worst client is someone who tells me to be creative and then decides nevermind, they want something very specific. Don’t go to a designer without an idea or a general style in mind. Don’t expect a designer to know PHP, XHTML, CSS, Ruby on Rails, Ajax, JavaScript, and a huge list of other programming languages. There is a difference between a web designer, graphic designer, and web developer. If you need a developer, hire one. If you need a graphic designer, hire them too. Don’t try to get someone with every skill – experts are good with a few things, not a lot. You’re paying designers for their expertise. If they make a suggestion, take it seriously.
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