The more things change the more they stay the same.
The top 10 Web Design mistakes for 2005.

I wonder what the top 10 blog design mistakes would look like?

I have pet peeves about poor blog design, but they wouldn’t necessarily be mistakes.
I paid to have this blog designed and be user friendly because I can’t code my way out of a paper bag. I needed help and I hired a professional to do the job.
That was a personal commitment to me and this hobby. It was also an acknowledgement I don’t know what I’m doing and it was worth paying someone who did. It is a decision I have never regreted.
Here are my pet peeves on blog design.

1. Contact. I know we bloggers get more than our fair share of spam.
However, I may have good reason to wish to contact you. Having to scroll and peer to find your email addy is annoying. You’re an adult. If you don’t want to hear from me, that’s fine, don’t respond.

2. Clutter. I think part of this pet peeve is a complaint against blog platform designs. The idea behind newer blog platforms is to make blogging easy for someone such as myself who doesn’t know their way around code. So, a myriad of blog platforms are out that eliminate the headache of being online and needing to know obscure language.

Most of these newer platforms have built in clutter. Ads, books, best posts, most recent posts, just clutter. Add on a blogroll that is bigger than most of us would go through in a serious week of blog leaping and I tend to draw back.

3. Links. I really hate it when a link doesn’t look like a link. It’s all fine to have neat fonts and fancy design, but when I read a post I look for links. Having to find them by sliding the cursour over every word isn’t productive use of reading and thinking time.

4. Registration or comment hoops. Again - in many cases I don’t think this is a bloggers fault. It’s expensive being online so we use what we can get. But I really hate some of the hoops I have to jump through to comment. It’s a catch 22, and each blogger has to make personal decisions about comment accessibility.

5. No comments. Hey. Maybe you get way to much traffic for comments. It really does happen. If you do, could you make your email accessible?
And if you can manage a comment section, it’s seems a bit pretentious to pretend otherwise. If you don’t want comments say so on your sidebar. Say why.
This is an interactive, relational hobby. You may have good reasons why you aren’t able to interact. That’s fair.
Readers aren’t stupid. They’ll cut you some slack. To me a good blog has a clear comment policy, good interaction with the blogger and shows self respect and other respect in the comment section.

6. Site meters. I don’t know why this is a pet peeve, but it is. Blogging isn’t a corporate or business secret. I don’t need to hide the traffic to my blog. I think that is why I use extreme tracker. (the little globe on the sidebar) It is not only easy for me to use, it is easy for readers to use if they’d like. I guess it’s a perception of transparency, I don’t quite know. Habit perhaps, traffic isn’t a measure of success, but it isn’t a measure of failure either.

7. Buttons. Have you noticed some bloggers seem to collect buttons? Many many of the services provided in blogging are open source and free. Countless talented people put in countless hours offering their services. In exchange, often as a courtesy and thank you, we can put their service button up.
But. Some people don’t know when to stop. 20 buttons doesn’t indicate courtesy to me, it indicates a button collecting problem.
An example of a button is the cre8d-design logo on the sidebar.
That isn’t there as a courtesy.:^)
That is there because cre8d-design built this blog, and taught this blogger a great deal about basics of function, usability and design.
When I made the decision to use a designer, I went into the process with some trepidation. If you’d seen my first blog, you’d understand I made a wise decision. I didn’t know how working with a designer worked, it turned out to be a lot of fun and a great learning experience.
I get to enjoy writing and talking instead of spending time trying to learn and implement ‘how to’s.’ The MT or blog help menu or tech forums are not fun places for those of us that are code challenged.
As appropriate as this BDBO web-home is, cre8d-design did something you can’t see. Rachel Cunliffe of cre8d-design made this blog Bene-mistake-proof. That was no small feat.

I wonder what the top 10 blog design mistakes are.
What pet peeves you have have when you leap blog?

Update: Take a minute and read Quantum Teas’ Cardinal Sins of Blogging.
ar arr arrrr!