The problem with blog design fads…

Do you remember back in the day when tight rolled jeans and layered socks were all the rage? What about big hair and jelly shoes? Acid jeans, biker shorts, and banana clips? Well now that you are reminiscing about 80’s styles and rock-n-roll hair bands I’ll try to make my point.

What if a great outfit was a periodic investment and you could only have one at a time? That is one outfit to wear to go out with the hunny; one outfit to have coffee with the girls; one outfit to wear for potential ministry project interviews; one outfit for church… you get the point.

If you could only have one great outfit at a time then you would make sure it was good for all occasions and that you would be able to use it for quite a while, right? So I think it is safe to say you wouldn’t go with an outfit that was a fad? You’d likely stick with the little black dress or the crisp white top and khaki pants. Why? It is because they never go out of style.

We really need to adopt these principles with our blog designs. Especially if you are paying someone else to design it for you.

Let me use my friend Karin as an example. She is the sole writer for a blog called Mommy Matters. Karin is one of the best bloggers to hit the whole “mommy blog” scene in a while. She is a really great writer and she has a knack for locating useful information and products and packaging them into a tasty bite size blog posts. Karin’s blog should have skyrocketed a long time ago. I honestly think her design held her back because just months after it was launched the scrapbook blog craze began to fade.

Now I am the embarrassed designer who actually crafted the original. Had I known then what I know now then I never would have let my friend do that. I would have let her know that it might hinder her. But I do know now and that is why I am telling you. Don’t follow blog design trends unless you have the cash to redesign regularly.

Here is Karin’s original design. (the embarrassed designer is hiding her face in shame – I’m so sorry, K

Here is her new design compliments of Darcy at Graphically Designing…

Her new design is clean and crisp. It is very easy to read and equally as easy to navigate. I am excited that she kept some of the graphics from the previous design because they clearly fit her personality and keeping some familiar graphics from design to design tends to comfort your readers. They like familiar things and it is something that they begin to relate to you. This design, though it has a scrapbook style top, is timeless and free of trends or fads because the majority of it is white (which equals readability and simplicity) and the accent colors are soothing.

Full scrapbook style designs, toile, busy backgrounds, and massive headers that take up half of the monitor are all design fads that have come and gone. Yet, that “outfit” is still used to greet friends, family, and even one time visitors that happen upon your blog. I say one time visitors because they may not come back if they see that outdated look. They like fresh and modern. Even potential ministry partners or publicists are graced by the presence of the outdated look and unlike clothing, you can only have one blog design at a time. Is that really the kind of outfit, or um, design, you want to have? I think not. I don’t think any of you who would show up at a women’s conference with parachute pants and twist-a-beads so keep these things in mind the next time you hire someone to design that blog for you? mmmkay?

UPDATE: There are lots of very cute scrapbook style designs out there and no not everyone of them looks outdated. A good many of the scrapkits that are available are very modern and design friendly. If the design is done well, like Karin’s, then you are good to go. The design style that was a fad is the one that puts a use to nearly every paper and element in the kit – leaving no white space – and takes over the sidebar, background, header, posts, and every other nook and cranny it could be coded into. If you only have a scrap header and a few other elements then you should be all up to date.

Tagged as: Ministry: Online