Sidebars

Sorry I had to move the topic along here.

Actually usability is not a personal preference, it's doing what makes sense to most users, completely independent of what you (the designer) personally thinks.

I'm not trying to say that it should be your only goal, or even that it should be more important than any other goal, such as artistic creativity, which (IMHO) you tend to favor with you design. Having the collapsing sections with the Activity and whatever the other one is (on just the main page and not the post pages) is a cool idea, and it looks neat. But my point is made by Nathan's earlier comment in this very post, who expressed some confusion about these things (which you called dropdowns) being there, or what they were for, initially. If a smart guy like Nathan who does this kind of thing for a living finds it a little odd, then I guarantee it's flying over the heads of most "average" users.

The fact is that most blogs have sidebars, and most users expect to see certain common things in them. When they are not there, it can be a bit confusing. I'm not saying that yours is "bad" or anything, I was just pointing out that sidebars are where users expect to see some things in a blog.

A similar analogy would be if you decided to have a more aesthetically appealing comment form. That Submit button is just hanging off to the bottom right down there by itself. It would probably look better if you kept it right-aligned but moved it up over the top of the big comment box, to keep things more balanced. (Even if you disagree on that, just go with me for a sec., for the sake of the example) The point is that even if you thought that looked better you still would (or should) not do it, because people expect to have submit buttons under the form, not over it.

Basically. when users are confused, that is a usability issue. To avoid this, you either have to have a brain-dead simple UI (like Google search), or at least be totally conformist and make your site look and work as much like every other similar site out there.

I'm not really suggesting you should do this, but that is the extreme, and I think that you should aim to land somewhere in the middle of that and having the coolest looking, most innovative site ever but one that no one knows intuitively how to use. Where along that path you decide to fall is where personal preference comes in, and since it's your blog it's totally your prerogative. I would just suggest that it's best to err on the side of usability, or at least try to find good looking designs that still maximize it.

Of course, you know I'm not jealous or even really trying to give you a hard time about it. Just trying to join in on the topic of conversation (sidebars) and why I think they're usually a good thing for blogs, at least in terms of usability.

Or I could just determine what usability I want for my blog by comparing the two and decide with my own opinion, since could be largely based on preference.

No really, what is it that you don't like? or better yet, why? Is it you can't get over a website that doesn't have a sidebar(s)? Can you not find what you would normally on a sidebar with my drop down links? Or is it because your eyes don't like not being distracted by a bunch of links that you only look at once? What is it? Jealousy? :p

Dan, maybe you should read some books / articles on usability.

Usability is so late 90's.

Usability? My blog has the same usability as any other with sidebars, if not better usability. And I don't have a lot of clutter.

Yeah, either that or if you're into making usability a priority.

If you are stuck in the 90's.

Sidebars rule basically.

I have to admit that I've always been particularly fond of sidebars but I would also consider a sweet footer.

The main area? about 25-30px.

It's wider, correct?

i'm happy.

Is that better? I don't know why it doesn't work right in Safari but I'm looking into it.

What would you call it? I really don't know.

i guess i saw the tags and blah blah thing, but i didn't think to call that a dropdown.

You didn't notice the dropdowns? They are open before the load.

Recent comments will be the next thing I do. I've actually already setup a hidden drop down for it I just have to put it all together and restyle the footer.

No, I know this is a problem that's why I'm moving it to the top with a shoutbox sharing the dropdown, I miss the shoutbox of old (sort of). Like I said before it is the next thing I do. Maybe tonight since Lost is a re-run.

the second thing i do now when i go to your blog is scroll all the way to the bottom of the page to see what people have commented on. the first is see what new posts there are. if you say rss, i'll bitch slap you.

where are these supposed dropdowns? i see none. we want recent comments above the fold.