Blog availability: Top ten bug Designs

Written in the front: This article will introduce some of the 10 most common errors about blog availability (Weblog usability). This article for translation works, the reason why I spend one night translating this article, because I read this text quite some feeling, in order to let more people understand this article, I will this article translation, and attached to my own point of view. The first translation, the bad translation, forgive me.

Blog availability: Top ten bug Designs

Author: Jakob Nielsen, translation: William Long

Blogs are a form of web sites, so some guidelines for usability are also applicable to blogs, but blogs are a special type of Web site, and some of their unique features can create completely different usability problems.

One of the greatest benefits of blogging is that it frees you from "Web Design" in essence, you write an article, click a button, it is published on the Internet, do not need those graphic design, web design, interactive design, message architecture, any programming and server maintenance do not need.

The results of the blog, making it easier to build a website, the group of writing on the Internet explosive growth, which is the importance of simple and easy to use a clear proof.

The second advantage of blogging is that they are the natural content providers: they are popular with links and essays, you don't have to write a complete paper or deal with the original research report, you just need to find some interesting site links on the web, and make as many comments as you can or add some examples. Obviously, this is much easier than running a regular web site, and it doesn't diminish the interests of others.

The third advantage of blogging is that blogs are a social ecosystem (often called the blogosphere), it's similar to the original feedback loop: Any good article is advertised with links from other websites, so that more readers/authors see this Good article, but more people add links to this article, and the result is that Link frequency leads to zipf law, good articles get more links.

Some people really just use blogs as personal diaries, only for family members or close friends, and blog usability guidelines are not usually used on such sites because the reader's prior contacts and motivations are more important than those of third parties. However, usability is important when your blog needs some unfamiliar new readers.

Also, usability is important when your readers come from the intranet, because your readers are business people.

Usability Guidance Content

To make sure you have a steady stream of new readers and do not lose existing readers, check to see if your blog has modified the following usability issues.

　　1. No introduction by authors

If you are a corporate blog, then you cannot add a complete "About Us" column. By the same token, for a personal blog, the most basic reason for adding a "personal introduction" page is that users want to know who they are looking at.

It's just a little trust problem. Anonymous articles are less trustworthy than signed articles, and unless the individual is very famous, we can't simply say this is Joe's article. The reader wants to know more about Joe, whether he is qualified enough to comment on the issue, and whether his comments are believable. (Even if you cannot formally prove that you are trustworthy, the reader will trust you as long as you look sincere.)

　　2. No photo of the author

Even if the blogging system has photo features, many blogs often overlook the offer of author photos. Photos are important because of the following two reasons:

1 It provides a more personalized image of the author. You can use one of the easiest ways to enhance your credibility because you're not hiding it. Again, users are more likely to believe in people they've met.

2 It connects the virtual world and the real world. People who have known you before will recognize your photos, and people who have seen your site will recognize you in real life (for example, if you are an intranet blogger, someone else will recognize you in a company meeting or in a corporate restaurant).

The memory of the human brain is mainly in one's face, and for many people, appearance is easier to remember than the name.

Also, if you want your business blog to be quoted by the newspaper, you should provide a high-resolution picture to download.

　　3. Meaningless article title

Sadly, even many gifted bloggers rarely use prescriptive writing guidelines in their writing. These specifications apply to the content of the article, but the most important one applies to the title of the article. The title must grasp the main points of the article content. Avoid funny, meaningless headlines that are irrelevant to the article.

The title of the article is the essence and concentration of the whole article, should be taken seriously, on the basis of the character of the daughter, the title of the writing is the most important.

Good article title for search engines, RSS subscribers and other external environment is particularly important, in these environments, users often only see the title can determine whether to click to see the entire content of the article. Even if the user sees a few short summaries under the title (for example, most search engines do), the test data shows that people tend to read only titles. Another reality you need to face is that people tend to read a lot of information only by looking at the first four words in the title.

For example, the following are typical bad headlines:

That's what you need.

Hi, everyone!

Abandoned victims.

Some good headlines such as:

Photo Show about the eclipse

The parking lot is paid to the government by 4 million yuan to solve the false case (although the title is too long, but read the first few words, you can still know the approximate meaning)

Ice cream cart opens in church.

The last title is related to religious blogs, if you write about the ice cream industry blog, then the "church" should be written in the front, because your full text of the content and ice cream.

　　4. Links do not say clearly where to go

Many authors find it cool to write links like this: "Some people think" or "more content see here and there", remember the most basic of the network: Point an unknown link is a waste of time. So be sure to tell people what they're going to click on and what they'll see when they open it.

In general, you need to provide as much information as possible in the linked text or floating text. You can also use the title attribute of the link to add text that you do not want to write in the content (see the title effect, speak the mouse to stop to the link).

Mistakes like this one also use abbreviations, for example, when you refer to your acquaintance's nickname in the article, unless you only write to your friends and not exclude your new visitors from your inner circle. The internet is not a school.

　　5. Bury the Classic article

When you write a good article has been the reader's affirmation, do not rush to file it, otherwise the user can only find the release date for this article.

So, you need to link these articles directly in your important area, for example, before I wrote 300 columns, read, "Before reading this article, first, see ' 101 Usability ' and ' web design Top ten Bugs '".

Also remember that you often link to articles you've written in the past, and don't trust your readers to read your blog from the start, to tell your readers about the background of the article, and to know more about your ideas.

　　6. Only Calendar navigation

Time clues may be the best way to archive, but not the best way to navigate. Most blog software provides a way to categorize by type so that users can easily find all the articles in a column. Use such a taxonomy, but do not add all the categories to an article, be selective, and publish the article in the most appropriate column.

The column must be detailed enough for the user to fully understand the meaning of the column. At the same time, can not allow users to face a very detailed menu-like choice, it is difficult to read and understand, usually 10 to 20 more than the column is more appropriate.

In the first page of each column, emphasis on the latest published articles.

　　7. No regular release

The basic principle of web design is to establish and meet the expectations of users. For a blog, the user must be able to know in advance when the next update will occur.

For most blogs, it's best to be able to update every day, but for some topics, weekly or even monthly updates can be accepted. In both cases, choose a fixed release date and stick to it. If you usually write every day, but sometimes it breaks down for months without any updates, you lose most of your loyalty and are the most valuable readers.

Of course, if you really have nothing to say, then do not publish articles, network pollution is a crime, in order to ensure the normal release, you can first retain some ideas, and so it matures before the release.

　　8. The theme of Chaos

If you're always publishing different types of topics, you're less likely to attract a bunch of loyal, high-value users. Busy people only read the topics they are interested in, and if they are interested in a wide range of other topics, they may not continue to read, and only those who are idle will read all the topics (often low value users).

The more you focus on your content, the more your readers will concentrate. This in turn makes you more influential in your small environment. Therefore, in order to establish authority, your theme should be consistent.

If you really want to talk about other topics, set up two blog sites and make appropriate links between the two.

　　9. Forget your future boss may also see your article

No matter what you write on the web, blogs or forums or even emails, think about what your boss will see in ten years. Once an article is released, it can not be retracted, the article will be archived, reproduced, and even spread to a lot of you will never know the site.

Just imagine, one day years from now, when your boss starts thinking about hiring you to do some core work, he's going to check out your past data (just search on Google for a full search), and then he'll find someone who has published so many immature "analyses" with your name. Or some nasty swearing and bickering.

Think twice before you do, and if you don't want your future boss to see this article, don't publish it.

　　10. There is a blog service provider's domain name

Using a blog-hosted space (your blog address is a domain name like blogspot.com, typepad.com) is equivalent to using a free e-mail address or the home page of a free global village, which may be irrelevant to a novice.

However, the use of other people's space means that your destiny is being mastered by others. They can lower their quality of service as they please, and they can raise the charges at will, and they can add flashing ads or pop-up windows to the top of your page, and they can put your competitor's ads on your homepage. Yes, you can choose to leave, but you have to pay the price: the loss of loyal readers, and the failure of other sites to exchange links, the search engine level down.

The longer you use the free blog hosting service, the more you pay the price. Yes, using those free blogging services can easily and quickly create a completely free blog space, but the cost of a domain is only 8 dollars a year, and you get more than just your personal domain name, and your future. When you realize that you are writing very seriously, you should immediately give up the type of domain that others have mastered, and use your own independent domain name, the longer you delay, the greater the pain you will suffer when you finally transfer.

Original address: Jakob nielsen-weblog usability:the top Ten Design Mistakes

Address: William Long-Blog availability: Top ten bug Designs

Reprint time please retain the original text and the translation of the link address, prohibit the commercial website reprint.

My view on this article: Opinion 3-10 I agree, but disagree 1 and 2, I think Chinese blog should not provide author and author photos, one reason is the article Nineth, in order to not let the boss see and give up their real idea is sad, and another reason is, These two laws can only be applied in a sound state, in China's current social environment and network environment is completely inapplicable, in many cases, people's safety can not be protected by law, extravagance talk about what "credibility" is no different than wishful dream. The first thing people want to do is to protect themselves, the second is to write articles, when a person even their own security can not be guaranteed, the release of their real names and photos will only bring them all kinds of unnecessary trouble.