#5 - Better or Worse?

There are sites where it is obvious that the creators have put enough time and effort into its design so that their intended audience feels at ease and confident in finding what it's looking for. Then there are sites like HavenWorks.

WARNING: This site may cause eye strain, headache, cross-eyedness, confusion, loss of interest, blurred vision, or seizure. Side effects can run from mild to severe so ask your doctor before viewing HavenWorks.

Essentially, just about everything is wrong with this site. The only two things that's not lacking is color and content. At first glance, my eyes didn't know where to begin and yet I had to scroll not only down but across just to view everything this site has to offer. Navigation is just about as impossible as it can get. Everything seems to be a link to somewhere so finding a starting place is like only choosing one piece of candy at the Sweet Factory. Even if I were to come across the information I wanted the text is hardly formatted and the pages require so much scrolling which makes my interest in actually reading anything nonexistent. There's simply too much of everything! I feel totally lost and unable to focus.

On the other side of the spectrum, Fatburgr is a fantastic little website. It's clear from the get-go what this site contains within the first few seconds of looking at the minimal yet effective images and quick, to-the-point description that can't be overlooked. It's colorful but not outrageous and gives off a kind of light-hearted feel. The limited amount of content on the main page makes it simple to get started searching the website without being constraining to exploration. It's easy to figure out how the site operates because it's uncluttered and organized in way that makes sense to the audience. Even though the content is limited, they provide additional resources if more information is required. It may be a bit simplistic but it's intended for quick access even when on-the-go as the iPhone option signifies.

When it comes to website design, simple and clean is the way to go.

I'm Original, I Use a Template

Image source: photobucket

Here's an easy guide to customizing your blog.

1. Go to Mashable's list of blogger template sites
2. Find a template you like and save it to your computer
3. Open up your blog in blogger, go to the Layout tab, and click on Edit HTML
4. Under Backup / Restore Template, click Download Full Template link to save your current template to your computer just in case you need it later.
5. Click the Browse button and open your new template that you want to apply
6. Click the Upload button when you've found it
7. If you come across any warnings, just save or preview if you want to see how it looks first
8. Navigate your way back to Layout > Page Elements and feel free to move your page elements around.
9. To add page elements, click an Add a Gadget link where you want your new element to show up
10. To add music to the sidebar, sign up with playlist, add the songs that you want to your playlist, add the HTML gadget to your blog, and follow the steps on the playlist website.