Part I
Have you ever seen a blog that you’ve wanted to see more of? You’ve tried to spend a minute or two trying to figure out how, been frustrated, and then moved on?
Haven’t you wondered sometimes how some bloggers put a lot of effort into writing a post, then select great pictures, put colourful badges, icons and a lot of other pretty things around the page and then put little thought into how the reader would navigate the blog?
In short, haven’t you come face to face with bloggers who are so into their own blogs, living and breathing it everyday, surrounded by it, that they’ve forgotten how to be an entertaining guide for a newcomer around their blog?
Why navigation is important
Thinking through how to arrange content on the blog is a very important consideration, not just in terms of the layout of material on the page but as a concept that needs some careful thought and strategizing. Navigation cues don’t just need to be functional–they can be presented such that they express the character of the blog and in the most beautifully done cases, be a part of the attraction of the tour in their own right.
I’ve often seen a great individual blog post shared by someone on social media or simply on my meanderings on the net that has seemed a dead end. I’ve seen a great clean design with a tiny link somewhere to a previous post. I’ve clicked. It’s been quite a task to find other posts. But what if I haven’t liked the previous post? How long could I keep clicking? What if there was a post five posts down that could’ve been of interest to me?
After spending a minute or two on the chronological trap, I’ve moved on. At other times, there have been posts randomly arranged on the sidebar with cryptic images and pictures. Cool but too cool, I’ve thought, unable to find another post that I could read and I’ve moved on.
Arranging the content would have been an easy step after writing such a great post. But no, the writer did not spend much time experimenting with arrangement.
Continued tomorrow: On reader-friendly arrangements
bottledworder 
Comments welcome