Nov 12 2007
Inspiring Wordpress Designs
The thing that always annoyed me about blogs was the layout. Sure, new themes are popping up all the time but they all still look like blogs. Long content posts on the left and a crappy navigation system on the right. Same old layouts… boring boring boring!
Now that I’ve finally got a blog of my own I’ve gone and done the same thing with a boring design. Bad me. But I have I’ve been converted to Wordpress just a little bit because I like how easy it is to manage content. Once everything’s set up there’s no need to rummage around in the source code. Adding new content just takes a bit of writing and a few clicks and that’s fine with me.
Well now it looks like I can rejoice because some people are daring to be different and are getting a bit more creative with Wordpress. Take Brave New Traveller, Ubertramp and Vagabondish as examples. I’ve been reading all three of these blogs for a while. They were all sort of hovering between blog and online travel magazine - they looked like a blog but read like something more.
All of them are packed with great content and now they’ve added a great design into the mix which kicks everything up a notch. They’ve moved away from the traditional boring looking blog style to a one that looks more like a regular site with the ability to take advantage of all of Wordpress’ great features.
Seeing what these guys have done has gotten me excited about Wordpress again. Last night I found myself thinking about what I want to do with my seriously neglected backpacking site and seeing those sites in action has given me lots of ideas for a travel magazine type site of my own with a few twists that will hopefully set it apart.
Thanks for the inspiration guys!
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I've been travelling since January 2008 living off earnings from the web. Follow me as I bum around Asia and beyond, getting up to mischief and working online as I go.
Thanks for the kudos, Kirsty. It really is remarkable what can be accomplished with WordPress. Its feature-set is ready, right out of the box, to be, not just blogging software, but a full content management system.
I think BNT’s new design is great, as is Mike’s at Vagabondish.
My only feedback would be this…one thing I personally find a little difficult is knowing where to look. There is sometimes so much going on that my eyes just don’t know where to go.
As I’m a regular reader and fan of both of these sites, I’ll persevere and keep looking…were I somebody new however, the sheer visual overload (as a visual person) might make me click away.
The psychology of choice is such that if you give somebody too much, they won’t make any choice and will go elsewhere - I think there’s a fine balance therefore in making sure that you give your visitors a simple and compelling experience when they come to your site without overwhelming them.
I do love those sites from a design perspective, and having now scanned them, I think the content looks interesting too. That’s from my geek perspective
But I do see Lea’s point on usability. When I first clicked on the links, I wasn’t even looking for the words. When I went back I tried to focus on the content and my eyes did feel kind of strained.
But here’s my take. A travel magazine is partly about the images. I like to see images of the places/people/things I might visit one day.
But apart from that, I think well chosen images help you scan a page and find what you’re looking for much more quickly. And on the Internet I wear my go-faster strips. I want speed!
So some nice, contextual images (contributed by readers perhaps) would keep me happy anyway.
:-) Leigh
Thanks for the mention, Kirsty. I suppose radical layout alterations can be a bit of a gamble if you’ve built up a big readership - as some folks might be put off and start browsing elsewhere if they detest the new look - but in that sense ubertramp had nothing to lose. haha!
Worldpress seems perfectly suited to such dynamic changes though (and by that I mean in the ‘big’ sense, not the ‘awesomely brilliant’ sense). With all the new plugins and stuff it seems to be changing into more of a content management system than a blog platform - but the beauty is that it still does both, and more importantly, it does them with minimal effort from the ubergeek driving it
I’ve played around with Joomla a fair bit on another non-travel site and although its pretty powerful (even moreso than WP in my opinion) initially its also head explodingly confusing and quite time consuming when it comes to actually building a site from scratch.
The other good thing about WP is that even with just a tiny bit of HTML/CSS knowledge you can effectively tinker with the layout of an already established theme (and even chop and change bits with other themes) with ease. Just download a few themes into a sandbox site, pick out the best bits of each and cobble something together to give a unique look. It seems as though the folks who write the original themes do so in such a geek friendly manner that it allows chimps like me to get stuck in and effortlessly turn beauty into fugly. I love it! Wordpress, we salute you!
So then Kirsty, what crazy theme are YOU going to go for?
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@Nath - Love the look of your blog. Have to say it’s my fave of the three.
Mike I think the only thing stopping me from using WP or another CMS is my lack of CSS knowledge and general frustration that causes when trying to get things the way I want them. I will be working on this once I pack the job in I think.
Lea I know exactly what you’re saying. I guess the key is making the site’s navigation pretty intuitive which is something I always try to put a lot of time into. Personally, I’d be more inclided to stick around a layout similar to the three sites I’ve mentioned that at a regular blog with one post after another all the way down the main page and categories on the side somewhere. I guess I like to be presented with obvious sections for a site up front.
I think there are differences between blogs and travel magazine type sites like this. I think the move to a more graphical look is good for the type of sites they are.
Nath I think I commented before that Joomla makes my head explode. I’ve only just finished sewing my chin back on and I don’t think I’ll be making another attempt anytime soon. I’m even a bit overwhelmed by WP. I think I might have a tinker with that Mimbo theme you’ve used to see how it works. I find this all really frustrating because I know exactly what I want and how I want everything to fit together and I think some of it might be complicated for me. I’d be tempted to get someone to build the site shell and let me fill in the graphics and content.
All big ideas but there won’t be any go ahead for awhile. Plus I’m not sure that I want to mess with Travoholic.com since it’s already a good earner. I wonder if I’d be better starting a whole new site…
hi kirsty, thanks for the comment on Brave New Traveler’s new layout! My reason for changing the site was definitely about how to get more of our content in front of our readers. So rather than having the single column, I feel the new layout and tabbed widget accomplishes this goal. But I’m also aware not to overload the reader, so hopefully everyone will get used to it shortly. As for redesigning your own sites, it’s really not too hard if you start with simple layouts. I say, have at it!
I find the magazine format of Vagapondish a little difficult on a small 14″ laptop screen. I like the more standard 2 or 3 column layout better myself. WordPress is awesome - I don’t think I will ever move on from it now. Its so easy to tweak themes - though a pain to replace an entire one because of having to add in all the analytics code etc back into the footers/headers
[…] Inspired by some great travel sites I’ve decided that I’d like to put my efforts into creating a travel magazine type site of my own that I can be proud of. I’ve got lots of ideas and I think that, because I’ll be travelling, I will be able to offer a lot of first hand tips and tales from the road that will hopefully set the site apart. […]
[…] Inspired by some really good travel magazine type sites, I’ve been eager to try my hand at something similar. So far, this blog is the only site of mine that has any sort of interactivity and I love that aspect of it and want to transfer it to a travel site. […]
very interesting, but I don’t agree with you
Idetrorce