Do you ask for criticism?
Does asking for criticism help your endeavours?
According to Dictionary.com criticism is:
1. the act of passing judgment as to the merits of anything.
2. the act of passing severe judgment; censure; faultfinding.
3. the act or art of analyzing and evaluating or judging the quality of a literary or artistic work, musical performance, art exhibit, dramatic production, etc.
I’m asking for it, and as long as it’s constructive I’ll happily do the same for you (as well as linking to your website). In fact, whoever offers up the most valuable advice will receive a prize. Not a big prize, but a prize nonetheless. I’ll write you a custom article in the next couple of weeks that reviews your own website or blog.
I want to know how I can improve on this blog. What articles should I ditch? Can the user-friendliness be improved? What’s the writing style like? What do you think I’m doing wrong?
Enough of the questions. Criticise me! I’m asking for it.
Related posts on David Airey dot com
20 appreciated comments on “Do you ask for criticism?”
What are your thoughts?
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Without wishing to be Mr Sycophant, there’s really not too much wrong for me. I like the layout, colours, everything is where it should be. It’s almost like you’re a professional designer ;-)
About the only thing I could say, is that it’s usual for the blog header to be clickable to return you the front page. I often click wildly on your name, before remembering & then clicking on ‘home’ an inch away. Hardly life threatening though.
I enjoy your excellent use of the site footer more than anything. Nicely done! (Although everything else is great too.)
Okay, I’ve been hunting wildly for something I can find that I don’t like. The only thing on the site that I think you could improve is the menu buttons up top in the masthead (do something more interesting with them), and that you’re missing a bit of hanging punctuation from the quote by Mao Tse-Tung (the opening quote mark should be set outside of the body of text).
And that’s being real nit-picky. It’s a great site David!
I, like others, really like your site and finding something to criticize is rather difficult. I find your posts interesting, thoughtful and often inspiring. I’ve been a lurker for some time, but recently decided to suck it up and start commenting.
As for improvements to the site, here’s a nit-picky one or two (not sure if these are very constructive, but they will help the page to validate):
1. In your favicon link, there are some uppercase items.
REL=”SHORTCUT ICON” HREF
I’d lowercase the entire line. And, that same line doesn’t have a closing tag /
2. In your form, Method has a capital “M” – it needs to be lowercase.
3. Your subscribe form is missing a few closing / in the as well as in the form fields.
Like I said, very nit-picky things. The overall design is great, as is the content.
One idea on your footer links would be to introduce some sort of differentiation for visited links? Just a thought.
Honestly speaking, your blog is really well designed and it is hard to find a fault with it. I’m going to split the criticism into Three parts.
User Friendliness
The Search or “find it” box should be somewhere up top or on the side, not at the bottom of the page. Not everyone has the patience to scroll to the bottom of the page if they want to search for an article.
I agree with Chris in that your name should be a link back to your home page. A lot of people have gotten used to clicking on a website/blog’s logo or name/title to get back to the home page.
Nit-Picky
Maybe there should also be a contact form on your blog instead of redirecting users to your portfolio site. I tend to just skim contact pages looking for either an email address or a form i can fill.
Site does not validate. I know, that is really nit picky :) .
Personal Opinions
There should be a link back to your blog from your resources page. I use firefox and the last time i checked your resources page, i didn’t realise that firefox had opened another tab for me. I thought i was still on the same page and i was looking for a way to get back to the blog. I had to end up editing the URL.
Personally, I feel if you have a menu at the bottom of your blog, then you shouldn’t have to many posts on the front page maybe one or two. For me, it can be a bother having to scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page. Just to get to your Blog roll or the search box (Though I end up doing it cause well you have quality links on your blogroll :) ).
Anyway, that’s my own two cents. Overall, your site has a great feel and the user friendliness is top notch. Great work, i doubt i could have done as good :(
I really like your blog, David. I love the comments being where they are – very good. Colors, design – great, as I’d expect with your graphics background.
My question, as a business consultant/coach – how’s the site working for you? Is it meeting your goals? If so, great. If not, be as specific as you can about your goals – then prioritize them. By the way, the best goals are very specific, detailed results. Not just, “I’d like more traffic.” More like, “I will increase my traffic 200% in the next two months.”
Once you have your goals clear and prioritized, the consider how your site can better help you reach your goals.
Some excellent pointers so far! I’m happy I asked now :)
Thank you everyone! I’ll be following up on this within the next few days and making some changes.
Very good David.. it is really important to be open to criticism! Since you left a message to me, you asked for it:
1) Subscribe link on top navigation must have an RSS icon next to it. That is why they are standard.
2) Comments on the side of the posts are not very user friendly in my opinion. I would rather read the post first then scroll down and read comments.. then leave a comment. This way I have to scroll back up to read them or leave one.
3) Like Chris, I agree your logo should lead to the homepage. Make it as easy as possible for the reader.
4) Colors are fine.. except is it too monotonous? Maybe you could make the bottom portion of the blog black to make it more readable. White text on gray background is a strain in the eye.
5) Sites I Enjoy section.. this is a really good selection but you forgot to add “the thinking blog” :P
Take care and good luck!
I’m presenting this linear fashion for the sake of time.
0. We share a common tastes in color.
1. Logo/header should lead back to the main page.
2. No. No logo should be more salient then your personal mark. Typography is clear enough and everyone–in some form or another–knows what subscribe means. If people are interested, they will look for the button. In-fact, remove that chiclet all together. Maybe use some color for the top nav system with subscribe being orange.
3. Your grid is solid, but much like mine, there is often a lot of white space when scrolling down, which is fine from a design standpoint, but I often wonder if I could add some sort of functional purpose. It would be great if the remaining to columns scrolled with the nav. But then, I don’t know how to do it without using iFrames. Which looks silly. :) Maybe random comments and pull-quotes?
4. Mine suffers from this too more so then yours–the minimal and often anemic look of my blog with small posts. It’s the end-result look…But designers do that often with their own work as a sign of strong design sensibilities. Color is good. I need to make the same change. If-fact, my blog is need of a lot of work. :)
5. Even though it’s still a little unreliable, a translation link would be nice. I’m sure you know better then me whether it’s useful or not based on your visitor stats.
6. I really dig the comments system and styles but, perhaps they have to much emphasis visually. The colum is almost as wide as the main post.
7. A personal slauation everytime I visit. Ok, just kidding. But some day, right? Might as well. Our blogs a social network just the same.
8. Pontificate a little more. Your obviouosly a great designer. Give us some advice. Talk about stuff with us. Let us vicariously live through a designers observations. :) I know a lot of designers and advertising people don’t like to get to close to criticising others or talking about ( potential clients ) others work, but you can talk with us, the readers, a little. Get us thinking. :)
9. Color. I need it too. I can’t tell if it’s me grid that hurts the lack of color or the white space, but It would help. Maybe in the type or links or something. Images maybe.
10. I hated this whole critique thing. It reminds me of how bad mine is. :/
Legal: Any and all offense taken from this must be returned. It not yours to take. ;)
It’s a great blog no matter how you look at it. I’ll be back no matter what.
ilker, Marc, that’s fantastic! You and the others have all given me plenty to think about which is great. Just what the doctor ordered.
I’m pretty busy earning my corn at the minute, but I’ll refer to your excellent remarks in a new post very soon.
By the way- I love the quote by Mao, has to be said! I’m dying to see what you do with everyone’s criticism now. Have fun David, all the best.
Hey there!
I don’t think this is mentioned on the comments: the text you write on each article appears *right* next to the border of the screen, making it a bit unpleasant to read.
(at least on IE, 800×600 resolution)
Keep it up ;)
It’s a dangerous but noble task to ask for feedback. I salute you sir.
I haven’t read all the feedback you’ve gotten so far, so forgive the overlap and repetition if there is any. Plus the comments I might give will be nit-picky since I think the overall design is great. I admire those who can pull off “simple” without it looking like it’s incomplete.
That being said:
1. I think the standard “logo is a link to the homepage” could help out with navigation.
2. Possibly design some elegant text buttons for the top menu.
3.The resources page look different from the rest of the blog, plus it’s another tab. Maybe warn the user that it’s opening another window or, if possible, integrate it with the blog.
If I think of anything else I’ll let you know, but in general it’s a thing of beauty man.
Drew
Rather late in the day, I’m afraid David – and it’s more of a question than a criticism. And it’s whether your blog should overlap with your day job? And it’s not an easy one to answer – although we all (yourself included) give it a lot of thought when we’re deciding how we want to present ourselves. Because blogging is usually much more ‘stream of consciousness’ than the formal presentation of credentials and portfolio – and I do question whether they sit happily side-by-side. I’d be interested to know how you now feel about combining these two aspects of your presentation.
Oh, and if you only change one thing, put the search box top right.
Dear David:
To answer your question, about the new style of template on my blog, I frankly believe the blogger standard templates, are kind of old fashioned and boring, in the new template, it is alive and matches the photos with the outlay very well, and is fast loading unlike the old template.I like your blog and its current format, I think you could use a banner at the top which will add pizzaz to the site.
I have added your site to my [best sights]list.
I believe strongly that constructive criticism is essential in my development in writing and photography.
I have found that in offering a critique it opens my mind and also helps my learning process.
Hmmm, I’m a little late to the party but I’m here now so break out the booze! Oh wait…
I have to chime in with all the other “like your site” folks. I really like the space you give your images at the beginning of your posts and the size of them. I also like the font you use for your headings.
Okay, now for the criticism. :)
1. I’d provide a jump link to your footer
content.
2. I’d maybe use a related posts plugin to fill up the white space next to your long comments scroll. This also helps with the fact that most of your navigational content is at the bottom and it will encourage people to explore your site more.
3. I’d love to read more posts about your process and tips and tricks.
4. I agree about making the header clickable. It’s a convenience for the visitor.
Loads of thanks for the continuing pointers. Late to the discussion or not, they’re always valid.
I’ll be posting a follow-up article within the next couple of days.
Thanks for the great ideas David.
do not listen, try to think yourself what can improve.