David Hayes

I came accross this list of usability mistakes specific to blogs Weblog Usability: The Top Ten Design Mistakes. I thought I’d go through them and see how badly I do…

1. No Author Biographies
   Ooooh I actually wrote one of these but the link got dropped the last time I upgraded Pebble. Note to self, must find some time to sort tht out

2. No Author Photo
   I can see where he’s coming from with this but I’m not too keen on the idea of setting images of me loose in the big wide world

3. Nondescript Posting Titles
   I think I’m usually quite good at this, I have had the occasional lapse into ‘humour’ but I tink all in all I’m ok.

4. Classic Hits are Buried
   This is a good point I’ll try and rectify, a few of my posts receive far,far more attention than others (mainly my MIDlet signing tutorial). I should highlight these in some way.

5. The Calendar is the Only Navigation
   It’s a standard feature of Pebble and I can’t see it going anywhere. I’m pretty good at tagging/categorising all my posts as a rule.

6. Irregular Publishing Frequency
   Cough, cough, enough said really. I’m too busy too much of the time. Saying I post sporadically is probably generous. I’ll try harder! I don’t really know who reads my blog if anyone. I get a lot of traffic from Google so I guess it’s mainly targetted searches

7. Mixing Topics
   Tough, I get interested in lots of things and I only post things that interested me or may be of some use to somebody

8. Forgetting That You Write for Your Future Boss
   A pretty fatal mistake in the business I work in. I think I’m quite good here.

9. Having a Domain Name Owned by a Weblog Service
   I agree totally here, it really won’t be long before blogger == AOL

Hmmmm, not too bad I suppose. I think I’ll try and spend some time on my blog at the weekend. Feel free to prompt me in nothing changes…

/Technology /Technology