TDH: Portfolio » Design

Presentation Builds Trust, Increases Readership

Thord Daniel Hedengren — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 09:54:40 +0000

Laura Spencer over at Business and Blogging did a follow-up on my Would You Trust an Online Friend post, but with a slightly different twist. She takes the business blogger angle, naturally, and rephrasing the question like so.

In fact, I would ask the question in this way: Do your readers trust you enough to do business with you?

This is a valid question if any, for any blogger really, although the business could be swapped for if there is trust enough to follow a shopping advice, or even returning to your blog for more at all. Laura provides five suggestions on how business bloggers can build trust:

1. Be genuine.
2. Be reliable.
3. Be consistent.
4. Be responsive.
5. Be current.

Naturally, she’s got explanations for these in her post, all worth to consider.

I would, however, like to add another one, often overlooked for business bloggers and others alike. The presentation.It is not so complicated, actually. A solid presentation will always strengthen and enlighten content, be it good or bad. Just as you can’t save crappy content with an excellent presentation, you can’t avoid weighing down on good content with a poor one.

Think about it. You are more likely to read a blog post if the actual blog design is appealing. It doesn’t matter how good the content is, if it’s not accessible. People will skip it, there’s too much out there that screams for our attention to strain with small font sizes, poor contrast, and other nastiness that might seem like a good design decision, but actually just looks cool.

It is actually quite simple, really. Content focused sites should present the content in the best possible way. That means not Flash intros, not a bunch of floating boxes you can open and close, nothing fancy that isn’t all about highlighting the excellent content. There are times for all these nifty and cool bells and whistles, but if you want your content to be read, then this is not it.

Good Practice for Good Content Presentation

Design is a personal thing, of course, and what I think is good design doesn’t necessarily fit what your personal preference is. However, there are a few things that you just can’t mess with if you want to make your content presentation readable and sound.

Don’t use small fonts. Small fonts is good for non-crucial information, explanations that aren’t always needed, copyright notices and such. Not for actual type, so stay away from it.
Use high contrast. Light grey on white might look classy, but you can’t read lots of text that way. Almost black on white, or almost white on black (although lots of people have issues with this) is the way to go. If you think you can pull a Gruber, then do try, but be very careful and listen to the reader input.
Have decent line height. The default line height is way too small, adding extra space between the lines will make the type easier to read. How much is debatable, but 150% is a good starting point at least.
Add whitespace. Don’t cram everything together, be it sidebars, logos, or other elements. Your content needs space, and that includes space between it and other parts of the design. Let it breathe.
Use images and sub-headings. These additions to longer pieces will give the reader some breathing space, and will make them look better. Looking better makes them easier to read.

There are other things you can do as well, but these very general tips can be incorporated into just about any design.

What About the Trust?

I claim that a good presentation builds trust, and it goes beyond just highlighting your content. Sure, it might be the designer in me talking, but I would bet a fair amount of money most of you have turned away at the door when stumbling onto an e-commerce site or similar, finding it to look spammy, ugly, old, unkept, ugly, or whatever. The way you present yourself online will spark the initial standing point with your visitors.

It’s pretty much the same in real life. You won’t go to a job interview dressed in rags, you want to look your best to make a good impression.

This is the same thing. Your design is your first impression, so you need to take it into account when building trust with the readership. You can change that initial impression of course, but just as in real life it is hard, perhaps even harder online since it is so easy to just close the tab and surf somewhere else. At least in real life you can be persistent and try to prove yourself.

So make a good impression, build trust, and elevate your wonderful content. That’s the way to go, for business bloggers and others alike.

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New Devlounge Design Debuts

Thord Daniel Hedengren — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 14:33:16 +0000

The new Devlounge design went online yesterday. I hope you like it!

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I’m back, and can’t wait to relaunch this blog!

Thord Daniel Hedengren — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 11:36:55 +0000

I’m back from my vacation, rested but loaded with work to be done in the coming two weeks. Business is good, thank you very much, I’ve got design gigs lined up and the requests keeps coming in.

In other words, I’m not complaining – but coming back from more than a week off is a bitch, honestly.

Anyway, I’m pumped up for projects and stuff, which means I need to start rolling out my new tdhedengren.com blog. It will make use of the design I made for my Swedish blog, tdh.se, and will sport regular updates. I guess I have to get myself a portfolio as well, my hire me page isn’t very exciting.

So I’m back. If I haven’t answered your e-mail that you sent no more than two weeks ago then send it again.

Peace out, people!

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I’m on vacation

Thord Daniel Hedengren — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 10:48:57 +0000

Good people, I’m on vacation. This is my view, not too shabby, especially since the photo doesn’t do it justice. Click it for a larger version.

No broadband but my wonderful Sony Ericsson K810i at least gives me some kind of connectivity, although I do not intend to use it much. Basically, what I’m doing is checking my e-mail every other day and take it easy. Oh, and I write. A lot. I’ll let you in on what later on.

Anyway, take care for now, and check out Biziki that was relaunched with my design in my absence.

Take care.

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901am redesign debuts

Thord Daniel Hedengren — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 07:37:32 +0000

So I did the new design for new media news site 901am, a gig ordered by Splashpress Media. The current editor, Minic Rivera, implemented the new theme yesterday and everything seems to be running smoothly over there.

I’m pretty happy with how the design turned out. It’s got a nice air to it, feels modern and a lot more new media-ish than the previous one, as well as offer a lot of advertising opportunities for the editor.

Speaking of 901am, there are a few of my readers wondering why I don’t blog there anymore. The reason for this is that I just don’t have the time – there’s so many things going on at the moment that freelance news blogging, while being pretty entertaining, just don’t make the todo list. I enjoy it though and hope to return to blogging for 901am in the future, I’ve got a history with the site as you all probably know, being on it more or less since the beginning and helping former owner David Krug make it great.

Anyway, back to work for me. Stay tuned for more frequent updates here while I:

Kill off my wicked cold
Catch up on work
Take a week off (late August)
Finalize my blogging plans

Now check out 901am, and read the redesign announcement if you please.

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Audival podcasting blog launches

Thord Daniel Hedengren — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 08:41:47 +0000

Audival – Podcasting Tips & Tricks is a new blog about podcasting. It launched yesterday and is owned by Splashpress Media. Yours truly did the design and my brother actually runs it.

Have a look! It’s a bit short (well, not really) on content but that’ll sort itself out in the coming days.

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The new Blogger Jobs design launches

Thord Daniel Hedengren — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 10:39:52 +0000

Another quickie. I’ve done the design for Blogger Jobs, and it seems more or less incorporated. Splashpress Media owns it, of course – who else? Have a look.

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The new Blog Network Watch design launches

Thord Daniel Hedengren — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 13:00:33 +0000

Check it out.

I’m pretty pleased with it. And yes, it’s built on the BloggerTalks design, which will get a complete makeover as soon as I can.

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EatonWeb beta launch and Valarie’s Place

Thord Daniel Hedengren — Sun, 20 May 2007 19:09:45 +0000

Just a quickie, I’ll post more on this later on but time is short…

My buddy Micah over at SeaWaves have announced the beta launch of the world’s oldest blog directory, EatonWeb. Yep, beta, so expect a quirk or two. I did the design for this mammoth project which is nice, again, beta and a quirk or two to take care of, but I’m pleased with it. Doing websites with lots of content and links is always hard, but I think this one came out alright. Do submit your blog!

Also, I did the basic design for another SeaWaves launch, this time a restaurant website called Valarie’s Place. If I lived in the New Jersey area I would check ‘em out.

Now I’m off for some much needed rest and some, hmm, secret errands…

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Moneyizor Network Magazine launches

Thord Daniel Hedengren — Wed, 16 May 2007 17:37:06 +0000

The Moneyizor Network Magazine just launched, with design from yours truly. It’s based on the previous network magazine designs (Allusionz, LifeTimes and 21st-Century Phi) that I made for Syntagma way back. John wanted Moneyizor green since it’s all about money and things like that, and who am I to argue when he comes running with his wad of notes?! Also, I like green.

Pretty sober design, as it should be when money’s involved if you ask me. Check out Moneyizor and read John’s launch post over at the Syntagma blog.