Design Tips

Without question, getting comments from interested readers is one of the most enjoyable and rewarding aspects of blogging. Unfortunately, interacting with people through comments is an asynchronous task, and this oftentimes makes it difficult to follow the ongoing conversation.

Over the past couple of years, I’ve seen designers and programmers attempt to solve this problem with things like threaded comments or even in-line AJAX commenting. Problem is, solutions like these tend to fall into one of two categories:

1. They are ugly as sin and a nightmare to style.
2. They are technical, complicated, and require you to install a plugin to get the result you want.

Man, oh man… If there’s one thing I hate more than ugly, it’s complicated.

Clearly, we need a comment management solution that is not only stylish, but also simple enough that anyone can execute it.

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I know you’re out there. You, the keen Web designer who rolls out both client and personal sites by modifying the CSS styles of existing WordPress themes. You’re smart, and I like that about you — after all, there’s no sense in reinventing the wheel with every project now, is there? Utilizing WordPress themes, or Website frameworks, is the only way to fly these days.

But there’s one major problem here.

Whenever one of your favorite theme frameworks is updated, you have to identify the new changes, re-implement your CSS mods, and then move ahead from there. That might not sound so bad, but I know there are tons of you out there who make hundreds of modifications. Suddenly, that molehill really is a mountain.

You sure you want to keep spinning your wheels every time a new version of your preferred framework is updated? What you need, my friend, is a futureproof, bulletproof means of protecting your CSS mods so that you can ride the wave of agile development without the associated headache from upgrading!

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If you’ve been blogging for any length of time, then odds are good that your archives are stuffed with posts that people might find interesting or useful. Problem is, when your best articles disappear from the home page, they descend into the depths of your site, landing in a lonely place known as the archives.

We all know that people don’t actually read stuff on the Web — they scan it, looking for content that is not only pertinent to them but also offers a clear and distinct benefit. In most cases, this is a rapid-fire process, and if somebody has committed enough time to even get to your archives, you can bet on the fact that their willingness to hunt for relevant content is dropping every second.

Therefore, if you want your archives to be effective (because most archives are decidedly not), then you need to provide specialized archive views that place a premium on scannability. Fortunately, you can accomplish this with almost no effort in one easy step!

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If you could choose between a static home page or a dynamic one, which would you take?

Dynamic every time…but wait, doesn’t that require work to pull off?

Not if you use my incredibly simple random header image solution! Oh, and you could use this for more than just header images; I just figure that most folks will want to rotate their headers, since they tend to be the most dominant visual elements.

Are you ready to go random? Let’s do it!

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From a usability standpoint, anything you can do to help your readers scan your content more effectively is a positive.

But if you can add an element that not only helps your readers but also adds an elegant, professional touch to your overall content presentation…then by god, I think you’ve hit the jackpot!

Today, we’re going to hit that jackpot together by adding a very simple, very stylish, and very useful element to our blogs — the ever-present pullquote.

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