Time Out Live & Learn Series

Blogging UX & Design by Mark Jenkins

@markjenkins

Design is more than just how things

are displayed visually

It’s a culmination of how things look, read, work and ultimately, delight people

Let’s begin by thinking about mobile devices

“Everyone is responsible for mobile.

(There’s) No difference between mobile and digital”

– Chia Y. Chen #MobileFirstLook Conference, January 2013

Think about the web as ONE.

Rather than ‘mobile’ (web) and the internet on a desktop

We are always hearing about the rise of mobile

There is no impending ‘rise’

It has already happened and phones are getting better and faster

A smartphone gives you some serious power

Your readers also have some serious power in their pockets…

Is the theme that you’re using responsive?

Does the design change on different devices?

Is your content optimised?

iPhone 5C

iPhone 6+

iPad Air 2

Use a theme that works cross-device

These are important questions to ask…

But why?

Because we switch between devices all day

From phone to tablet to desktop

The most important thing is people

NOT the device.

How do we enable people to access our content easily, no matter the device?

6 simple rules to follow

#1 Have empathy for people

#2 Be device agnostic

#3 Use a responsive theme

#4 Optimise your content

#5 Optimise your images

#6 Optimise for speed

Your blog’s design is a very important part of blogging

Not just from a visual perspective but also for

search engine optimisation

SEO and Design & Usability used to live in very different worlds

Design

SEO

They are now closely aligned

Design SEO

Check and Design your 404sDesign your error pages

Search engines can mess up the inbound links to your blog

Have a well-designed 404 pages that direct people in the right direction if they end up there

Offer them a helping hand and DON’T tell them that it’s their fault that they are there

Add a search box Direct your users to your homepage

Review inbound links

Your site Site A

Site FSite E

Site D

Site C Site B

Review inbound links

Don’t make your users bang their head on the door on their way in

Utilise plugins that will fix broken links and redirects

Plugin: Simple 301 Redirects http://wordpress.org/plugins/simple-301-redirects/

Optimise popular pagesOptimise popular pages

You probably have pages that are highly viewed

REMEMBER! The internet is never ‘finished’

Optimise these pages for the people who read them

If you’re trying to make them do something: sign up to a newsletter, click a link, download a file or something else

Make it easy for them

Capture your audience for the long term

Create Simple NavigationSimple navigation

Define your categories in a strategic way

Do you really need that many?

Think about how content is accessed and utilise the menu system built into WordPress

Make the journey from A to B as simple as possible

Use images well and wisely

Think about the pain of loading a page on your mobile and there’s 10 images to load

Are you serving hundreds of images to people’s devices?

Plugin: W3 Total Cache http://wordpress.org/plugins/w3-total-cache/

People’s attention span is short so optimise the page and leverage caching where

possible to enable a speedier page load

Install a responsive image plugin and serve images at the best size for

the device they are being viewed on

Plugin: Simple Responsive Images http://wordpress.org/plugins/simple-responsive-images/

Using images well Will catch the reader’s eye, help them

commit to consuming your content

Using images well

Differentiates the content you want people to consume from

all of the other similar posts

Using images well Will craft a memorable visual experience

Using images well Will strengthen an already strong blog post

Using images well Adds valuable SEO traffic to your blog

Call To ActionCall To Action

The goal of the call to action is to encourage people to make decisions

Create an effective level of usability so people come back time and time again

They shouldn’t feel forced or required

Make sure there is a benefit on click or tap

Sharing is CaringMake it easy to share

Make sharing options prominent

Make it easy for the user to share your content

Don’t frustrate them

Don’t add ALL of the sharing options because you think they buttons look great

Too much choice is bad for people

Permalinks & SlugsPermalinks and Slugs

Your workflow may look similar to this

• Create your great Title of the Post • Write the Post • Choose Category(ies) • Add tags • Review the post before publishing • Hit ‘Publish’ and wait for it… • Sit back, relax and watch the page views increase

Your post slug is defined as the direct permalink or URL to your post

Maximise the density of keywords on your permalink instead of diluting

it with 20+ other words

It’s much friendlier to use smaller permalinks

Get rid of any extraneous words like the, as, if, an and others

They don’t contribute anything to your SEO

Include only targeted keywords that specifically match that particular piece of content

Don’t forget…

6 simple rules to follow

#1 Have empathy for people

#2 Be device agnostic

#3 Use a responsive theme

#4 Optimise your content

#5 Optimise your images

#6 Optimise for speed

The result?

Happy people reading your blog

Optimised content on your blog

More time for blogging (!)

Thank you!

@markjenkins

www.theluckystrike.co.uk