Your identity means something to your visitors

Nothing is better than revamping your blog and having a change of direction that enables you to focus on the things you want to write about. How many of you have thought your blog is becoming dull or just not going in the direction you want it to?

Having a new design always creates a buzz with your readers, look at the amount of comments that are on the new design post here at Blogging Tips. Many of you had your say about the new design. Your visitors do care about what your site looks like and most of all how easy it is to use and understand.

Broadband provider BE launched their new brand identity and website this week and what a stir it created. Many tweets were flying around the Twiterverse and many people were posting their view on the new design on forums and blogs. I noticed on the left side of the new site that they have also allowed the user to change the background image but the designs they allow you choose are outrageous. Take a look at the design I chose:

What do you think?

In my opinion it feels as though they want to push the boundaries to stand out loud and proud but they haven’t considered usability. The first thing that hits you is the bright colours and the total chaos of the layout. Where do you start? Where does your eye take you?

This isn’t just my opinion as I mentioned above, when BE released the new deign they wanted people to see it and see the new BE. If you want to see some of the comments that people were saying about the new design, do a search on Twitter for @bebroadband and you will see that a good percentage of users were totally shocked at the new design.

When I saw the site and with all the comments flying around I thought it could be a good PR stunt to get everyone talking about BE but is it? If it is then this is such a good thing for them as everyone is talking about them but if it is not and they are keeping that design then they really need to consider the impact it will have on those using their site.

As you read this BE are making changes to their site I think they had to with all the comments that were made.

Make sure that if you decide to change the design on your blog or website that you consider how your users will be navigating and interacting with the site. Nothing puts off a user quicker than finding it hard to find things on your site or finding it hard to read the content. I have known some sites set up a section on their site open only to a select few that can comment on any new design ideas before they go live. This creates a close community and lets you communicate directly with your users.

If you are starting out and want to consider the design for your site then make sure you do your research, even ask a few questions here in the forums. It is not all about getting the adverts on your site. You have to think about getting the information to the user and make the site appealing.

Written by Lee Doel from The Funk House
Posted on July 25th, 2009 and filed under Blogging
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