Beware of Weblog Usability Mistakes!

I think that the article “Weblog Usability: The Top Ten Design Mistakes” is extremely helpful. Jakob Nielsen lists ten weblog usability problems which are very important to consider when blogging. Some of these issues I had already encountered and thought about, even in my short time as a blogger and blog reader. Others were new to me, but they made great sense.

Point #3 “Nondescript Posting Titles” jumped out at me because I struggled with this issue in my last post. It was the Friday before the long weekend and I started to type “Whooo hoooo, it’s the long weekend” as a title. As I was doing this, I realized that my readers would think that I was just posting regarding my excitement about enjoying three whole days off from work and not about the fact that “Blogs need to be visually appealing!!!” I quickly deleted the first title and chose the second, more appropriate headline. After reading Nielsen’s article I am glad that I did, as he states that “headline writing is the most important writing you do” and that “users often see only the headline and use it to determine whether to click into the full posting.” I doubt that many of you would have clicked on my “Whooo hooo, it’s the long weekend” post or taken it seriously, for that matter.

I found Usability Problem #5 “Classic Hits are Buried” to be a new and useful tip. Nielsen mentions that bloggers must “remember to link to [their] past pieces in newer postings.” I have gone ahead and taken his advice in my previous paragraph (check out my “Blogs need to be visually appealing!!!” post!!) I think that it is very important for bloggers to remember that all of their readers may not have been with them from the beginning. I may not have thought about this issue prior to reading this article because I have only posted a few times or because I don’t think many other people, other than my classmates are reading this blog, but in the real world, Usability Problem #5 makes great sense.

Ok, I don’t want to make this post too long, as Fichter notes “Brevity is important”, but I have one more issue that I would like to note: Usability Problem #1 “No Author Biographies.” I have noticed that many blogs do not mention anything about who is writing other than their name. This is quite bothersome. How can you trust a blogger when you know nothing about them? It is important for readers to know if bloggers “have any credentials or experience in the field [they are] commenting on” (Nielsen). Many of our case studies this week suffer from this usability issue. Some of the public library blogs we examined have a “Posted by …” at the bottom of a post or the blogger signs his/her name, but this information is pretty meaningless if you don’t know their position in the library. I did not notice any “about me” pages on any of the case study blogs. The only library blog that I believe did a good job of explaining who was posting was the Virginia Commonwealth University – Library Suggestion Blog. A library staff member answers each suggestion, and the posts begin with the name of the person responding and their position. For example, one post begins: “Pat Flanagan, Associate University Librarian for Public Services, responds....” I think that the other weblogs should consider a similar style or perhaps post an “about us” page on their weblog. I have an “about me” on my Loco Librarian blog, which states that I am an MLIS student. After reading Nielsen’s article I think that I may add a few more details.

I have tagged a couple of articles, “Dealing with Common Blog Usability Problems” and “If you’re reading this, you are a low-value demographic”, which offer some interesting additions to Nielsen’s usability problems.