Dallas-Fort Worth Babies

Can I request a little feedback?

The way my blog is set up I have 6 "featured" articles listed at the top in a menu bar to the right, the rest of the "recent" posts are listed below. ?Is that confusing? Do you think it would be better if I just had 1 "featured" article and left the rest as "recent" below? Or would it be better if I renamed them as "new articles" and "older articles" and left them the same (with six of them in the top right menu/list/whatever that technically is)?

For those who don't know what I'm talking about or have never seen my blog, the link is in my siggy. ?I'm actually especially interested in hearing back for people who haven't seen it before. ?I want to know if it's hard to navigate for a first time reader. ?Thanks so much!!?

Re: Can I request a little feedback?

  • It is not confusing to me.

     

  • The first time I read it I was a little confused.  I wanted to read the most recent, and couldn't figure out where it all was.  Now I know how it's all set up it's not a big deal though. 
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  •  To be quite honest, J, I think it is very confusing and difficult to navigate.  When I first saw this when you changed over from the old theme, I felt the same way.  There are so many different places where you have what is essentially the same thing... recent articles, featured articles, most recent posts... plus all your top nav stuff (About me, etc then your categories Cloth Diapers, etc), then down below there are more tags (most people don't know the difference between tags and categories), more categories, plus the twitter feed.  Oh, and two search bars.  And a banner ad smack in the middle of it all. 

    Speaking as a too-opinionated interactive designer... it's just too much.  I loved, loved, loved your original template/theme.  I know it didn't have as many features, but it was so nice and clean and lovely and easy to read/navigate.  It had a lot of nice white space and the color scheme was simple, but cute and fun.  I didn't have to think too hard to find what I wanted to find or even just figure out which was the most recent post.  You might not want to hear this... but if you feel like you can, I would go back to that old theme/format.

    What I would do at this point with the current theme:

    - Delete where you have the most recent post and Featured Articles, moving up the three-column section below (including the ad).

    - Pick one search bar to keep and put it up top where the first one is now (or at the very bottom of the page or in the right column)

    - Change your Recent Articles to your actual blog feed starting with most recent.

    -  Make your Memos from Mommy button the same width as the column that it's in.  I don't know if you have a reason why you want that near the top, but if not, I'd put that and "As seen on The Bump" at the bottom of that left column.

    - The breastfeeding tag in your tags box is bleeding over into the next column.  I'd make all the tags the same size font instead of varying the font to the frequency of the tag so that it looks more uniform and easier to find things alphabetically.

    - The box on the right column (with twitter, archives, etc) looks heavy to me so aesthetically, I'd put that on the left and put the left column stuff on the right.  Not at all necessary though, just my personal preference sort of thing.

    Ok.  Sorry that was SO long!  I know you weren't asking for general site opinions but it seems like it was kinda tied into the overall design so I hope you don't mind!  I freakin' love your blog and think you're a fantastic writer and I really want you to do well with it so that's why I'm nitpicking. :)

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  • OH, thank you, B!! I am SO appreciative of the feedback! I see this damn thing every day and am never super fond of it, but never really know what exactly I don't like. ?It's good to get an outside POV.

    I moved from the old theme because it was basically full of bugs and impossible to customize and add ad space. ?Not that I'm selling ads really, but it's nice to have the option.

    I paid a pretty penny for this theme, so I don't want to ditch it, but it's good to have some suggestions of things to change. ?I think I'm going to just get rid of the tag cloud altogether. ?Do you think that would be good?

    It will be slow-going since I'm not CSS expert, but hopefully I can work on some changes this week. ?

    ?Again, thanks for all the feedback. ?And please, feel free to share more anytime :)?

  • I have not seen your blog before and was a bit confused at first too.   there is a large white horiz space between the current article and the recent articles.  I guess I am used to blogs showing posts in sequential order and when the entire post isn't visible on the main page I am used to seeing them at least all together and contiguous w/the current post.... so since there is a huge gap between your current post and recent ones, it's a bit confusing.
  • imagemrspresley:
    I have not seen your blog before and was a bit confused at first too.?? there is a large white horiz space between the current article and the recent articles.? I guess I am used to blogs showing posts in sequential order and when the entire post isn't visible on the main page I am used to seeing them at least all together and contiguous w/the current post.... so since there is a huge gap between your current post and recent ones, it's a bit confusing.

    Yeah..that has always bothered me. ?I'm going to play around a little tonight with eliminating the featured articles altogether and see what it looks like. ?Now I'm off to drool over your food blog.?

  • Just went to your blog for the first time, I've previously tried to subscribe through RSS but quit because you have to click through to read the whole entry - which to me, totally defeats the purpose of RSS.  I realize this is how you get paid, though, so I'm not knocking it.

    Everything in the far left column should be the same width - I think PP mentioned this.  I would only do one "feature" or most recent post and then maybe 3-4 of the previous posts - currently I think there's too many if you have to scroll down.

  • Hey Sar, thanks for the feedback!

    I actually changed the RSS feed to full article a while back. ?I actually don't get paid by anyone and didn't realize this was such an annoyance, but I changed it as soon as I got some feedback. ?I hope you will subscribe now!

    I also got rid of the featured articles altogether. ?Hopefully it looks better now! I'm working on aligning the left column.

    ?

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