Blog Design Basics

You might take it for granted when you visit blogs, but when you operate your own, you soon find out how important a blog design is. Sometimes you’ll find a template you’re okay with, but other times, you’ll be stuck and need to create your own. Below, FindableBlogs.com discusses the ways you can design your own blog with limited graphic design knowledge.

Many of the designers I work with are bloggers themselves, but some are not, so this is intended to be an introduction to what goes into a blog design.

When I refer to blog design on this page, I’m specifically talking about the part of the process that happens in a graphics program like Photoshop or Fireworks. The part that happens after that (where I take the design file and turn it into a working design) is what I refer to as coding—and a lot of designers aren’t interested in that at all (which is fine by me!).

Elements of a blog design

I’m going to start by defining some terms that I use when talking about blog elements.

The header is the section at the top of the blog that comes before any of the blog’s actual content. It often contains elements like…

The blog title usually describes the blog. Sometimes this is also simply the name of the main site if the blog is just part of a bigger site.

The tagline clarifies the purpose of the blog (or sometimes just provides a laugh).

Many blogs have navigation near the top of the blog to help visitors find their way around.

The main content in a blog is its posts. Posts usually contain some or most of these items…

The post title communicates quickly the point of the post. It’s like an email subject line.

The post content is the “article” that gives the post purpose. It’s like the body of an email.

Information about the post is called metadata. The following are examples of metadata…

Most blogs feature the date and/or time the post was written to help readers gain context.

Categories and/or tags help the reader quickly determine the topic and find more posts on the same topic.

Blogs that allow comments provide a link to read and write them.

The name of the post’s author helps readers associate the post with a specific person. This is essential on blogs with more than one author, and helpful even on single-author blogs.

Most blogs have one or more sidebar. The sidebar is a place for information and tools that go beyond specific posts. The sidebar is made up of…

Widgets are self-contained chunks of information that the blog owner can add and move around.

The footer contains more “meta” information, typically about the whole blog rather than just a post. It usually has…