I’m off work ill today, having succumbed to the bugs brought by two separate sets of visitors in the last week. Fun.

When I’m ill, which is thankfully an occurrence seemingly less frequent that it used to be whilst I was in the classroom, I see it as an opportunity to ‘step outside of the stream’ and do something slightly different. I’m constrained, obviously, by a need to avoid overly exerting myself but, in a way that my parents didn’t understand when I was a teenager, there are as many and varied things one can do in the digital world as there are in that of the physical.

Today, then, I decided to continue the ongoing saga of the redesign of this blog. Whilst to some the design of their blog is merely a choice between pre-existing themes, to me it’s – perhaps slightly pretentiously – much more than that. Not only is it an opportunity to do some research in the field of webdesign and user experience (which I always enjoy) but it’s an chance to reflect upon my digital identity and the facets I deem important to present to other people.

Popular blogs

Whilst Technorati may have taken somewhat of a dive in popularity since the heady days of 2005, it’s nevertheless useful for ascertaining which blogs are the most popular. There is, of course, a problem with equating the most widely-read and visited blogs with effective design and user experience, but I’m going to assume that there must be at least a significant overlap. Those with a large readership are likely to be the most effectively monetised and therefore will have the ability to redesign to improve that monetisation. Or, at least that’s the theory.

After looking at some of the top blogs I came to realise that the functionality of a blog depends massively on the expectations of its audience. Most of the top 50 blogs are about either politics or technology. Whilst I blog about the latter (and occasionally about the former) the type of technology being talked about on the top blogs is the latest and greatest. This is reflected in the shiny shiny nature of the blogs and short, sharp updates. Take Engadget, for example, a blog that I, for one, read every day:

Good practice, is of course, contextual. That is to say that what works in one field doesn’t necessarily work in another. A blog is not a blog is not a blog.

Refocusing

Looking at Technorati’s categories for a better alignment, it was difficult to see a ‘natural fit’ for a blog like this one which ostensibly covers ‘education, technology and productivity’ but also delves occasionally into leadership, design and philosophy.

It turns out that the Technorati’s business directory looked to have the best fit. I should say that my aim in doing all of this is not to slavishly replicate an existing design, monetise this blog or become a dedicated follower of fashion. Instead, I’m looking at what works in practice, not just on the drawing board (and, to be honest, in my head).

Here’s thumbnails of the top 10 (fairly loosely-defined) ‘business’ blogs:

Notice anything?

• Sidebars on the right
• Coloured bar at the top
• Easily identified logo
• Coloured sections in sidebar for highlighted content
• People’s faces
• White backgrounds

Digging deeper

Looking at the top themes is all very well, but in my daily digital digressions I often come across sites which feature elements or an overall design that I find pleasing. I’ve attempted recently to start adding the tags ‘webdesign’ and ‘inspiration’ to my delicious links but it’s early days.

Here’s some sites I’ve come across recently that have pleased and/or inspired me:

1. TECHi – clean, clear with colour-coded categories and thoughtful typography.
2. Cennyd Bowles on user experience – very crisp and obvious functionality (as you’d expect from a UX guy) – nice used of ‘mulletised’ post structure.
3. Joe Hewitt – minimalist yet distinctive.
4. 37 Signals – colourful whilst still being predominantly white; simple.
5. Bryan Boyer – über-minimalist, stripped down to the bare essentials (Google cache as seems to be down)

Extrapolating from the above, it would appear that the things that appeal to me most are:

• Minimalism (or at least, stripped-down design)
• Innovative use of colour
• Appropriate typography

Finally…

Having come across Cameron Moll’s Good vs. Great(er) Design a couple of months back I felt I needed to go back through it. Awesome does not even begin to describe how good this slidedeck is! Check it out (I’d click on menu to go full-screen):

My favourite parts?

• Great design produces an emotional response
• “The simplest way to achieve simplicity is through thoughtful reduction” (John Maeda)
• Effective design is like good poetry

All of these considerations are why people pay people such as my friend Paul Lewis at Fi to do these things for them. Not me, I’m interested in the nuts and bolts.

It’s time for the Edublogs Awards again, and I still haven’t changed my stance. I’m totally against them, for reasons I shall explain. I wasn’t going to say anything as people who I like and respect such as Tom Barrett and José Picardo are stoked to be nominated, but I really must give my $0.02…

1. They foster competition instead of collaboration and co-operation

Just as when you’re teaching a course that has an exam at the end of it you teach differently to those purely assessed by coursework, so the Edublog Awards can influence blogging. Although I’ve blogged before about making sure you don’t get ‘unfollowed on Twitter’ and offered tips on how to retain RSS subscribers, this is slightly different. The point of those posts was to make sure that people offering a different view of education continue to get their voices heard. The Edublog Awards are a popularity contest that pit blog author against blog author instead of striving to a common goal

2. They’re promoted by people who have vested interests

I’ve met and think I get on with Josie Fraser reasonably well (education and social media consultant). I’ve heard that James Farmer (Edublogs.org owner) is a great guy. However, both of them do this kind of thing for a living. I’m certainly not saying that they set up and continue to run the awards purely for financial and self-centred reasons. But it’s a consideration.

When I’ve made points like this before, people have said that bloggers deserve a thank-you, a well done and a slap on the back. Yes. They do. That’s what comments, tip jars (like Dave Warlick’s Starbucks one) and blogging about what you’ve learned via that person are for. Awards are divisive.

“I smell sour grapes,” say others. Not so. In fact, one of my blogs (the now non-existent edte.ch) was nominated in the category ‘best resource-sharing blog’, even though it did nothing of the sort! What’s worse, people actually voted for it. I was shocked.

Still others may say that it’s a good way to find out about new blogs or ones that have escaped their attention. So are Technorati, Google Blog Search, the ‘recommendation’ feature in Google Reader, and – shock horror! – people actually just blogging about other people and their blogs that they find useful or interesting. There’s no need for an award, or series of awards, just so that people can discover new or different content. The Internet is already good at connecting people and for searches…

3. It’s very easy to rig them

Just as ‘Teacher of the Year’ awards are won by good teachers but not necessarily the best in their field, so the Edublog Awards reflect the nature the process. What happens when a teacher is nominated as ‘Teacher of the Year’? Everyone even remotely related to their school or family is urged to vote for them.

I know as a matter of fact of teachers nominated in previous years who have encouraged every student they teach to go home and vote for their blog (as the school has a single IP address). I’ve seen blog posts pratically begging readers to vote for a blog.

In the end it comes down to who wants it the most. And I don’t want it at all. Comments and thank-you’s on this blog and Twitter are reward enough. It’s a shame that’s not the case for others in the edublogosphere. :-p

I had some free time. So after stumbling across extralogical.net whilst hunting for WordPress themes I thought I’d look for some blogs on philosophy (it’s what I did my first degree in). Oh the joy…

I’ll start with one of Benedict Eastaugh’s (he of extralogical.net) posts from his previous blog in February 2007:

In the spirit of enquiry, then, here’s a list of what soon-to-be graduates (perhaps in Philosophy) might know.

• They know quite a bit about their discipline: its fields and sub-fields, some of the big names, some of the big ideas.
• They’ve learned some techniques: how to generate counterexamples and formalise arguments, how to spot equivocation and split hairs.
• They know where to find the worst coffee, and the best beer.
• They know a lot of jargon

The greatest thing that philosophy taught me was that the structures that most people see in the world are man-made and actually quite fragile. Being a teacher, this means instead of focusing on what schooling has been, I focus on what it ought to be. I’ve got the bigger picture.

Allied to this is the fact that I continued my studies to do an MA in Modern History to become a History teacher at seconday level. This has given me a perspective from the history of ideas which shows the current age as simply the knife-edge upon which we are travelling (to use a poetic metaphor…)

A quick Technorati search for ‘philosophy’ took me straight to a YouTube video of Monty Python’s Philosophers Football Match. Classic:

Unfortunately, a Google search for related:extralogical.net returned stuff pretty much exclusively about WordPress themes. And then when I searched Technorati and Google Blog search for posts tagged with ‘philosophy’ I was disappointed. I don’t want long, technical posts like this or this thank-you-very-much. I prefer the Montaigne approach: you know, discursive writing on a theme that brings in social commentary, history and philosophy. I suppose the problem is that bloggers like that are a) few and far between, and b) don’t tag their posts with ‘philosophy’!

Oh well, if anyone wants me to point me in the direction of a few good blogs, feel free. In the meantime, I’ll be reading Benedict’s blog. He doesn’t update regularly enough, though…

(image: in ur mind @ Flickr)