Web 2.0 Blog

As Web 2.0 applications continue to dominate user’s time and investments in 2008, I’ve been doing some reading about Web 3.0 and what it holds in store for the future of web development and it seems there will be four very important milestones reached.

Portable Web
Traditional websites are designed with the intention of being viewed by users accessing them with desktop PCs and standard GUIs. With the evolution of Web 3.0, websites are no longer confined to the screens of a desktop computer but are also accessible via mobile devices such as mobile phones, iPods, Blackberry’s, IPTVs. This throws up a whole new set of questions regarding heuristics, accessibility and usability as users are not interfacing with the software and hardware in the way that all our previous rules were written to abide by.

Semantic Web & Web Services
This is the evolution of intelligent systems beyond the GU, that allow web services to share business logic, data and processes through a programmatic interface across a network. This results in multiple applications interfacing instead of the users. The ultimate goal of Semantic Web is to lessen the tedious work of users and encouraging systems to carry out tasks without the direction of humans. So instead of building web pages to be read by humans, Web services will allow different applications across different platforms to communicate with each other seamlessly.

Open Data
This is the idea of making the web completely integrated in an effort to encourage sharing between users and different applications. The intention would be to make code available via open source, making data portable between sites and making these sites accustomed to your browsing and sharing habits. Imagine being able to use the same login details for a host of your web applications. Google Mail, Yahoo Mail and Blogger are examples of cross-platform data sharing, allowing you to perform different tasks with the same unified account.

Customized Web
Web 2.0 applications are already becoming more customized and tailored to the individual user’s needs based on cookies and settings, and Web 3.0 aims to take this even further. We have already seen websites like Amazon adopting a recommendations engine, which generates thousands of additional sales. How about BBC’s new news site? You can choose which news you want to know about, and you can even have it delivered via RSS.

In my opinion the biggest development comes from the idea of mobile computing and Internet access as not only does it throw the traditional heuristics rulebook out the window, but due to its portability it could be always on, it is aware of its location and it offers instant ways of paying for items on the Internet.

The fact that you can call a number on a website and have credit added to your phone means there’s no reason why we can’t buy other things in the same way. Add to this the new ways that users will interface with these new devices and we could also have much more different ways of interacting with the web. With Google, Yahoo and Microsoft all driving mobile web systems we could be looking at portable Web 3.0 very soon.

As someone who has studied usability analysis, I’ve come up with 10 usability guideline which all new bloggers should abide by to help generate subscribers and interest in their site.

1. Clean, simple design - With the hundreds of widgets and scripts now available, a lot of bloggers clutter up their sidebar with numerous bits of functionality, which is fine as long as you don’t go over the top. The user is most likely reading your blog to find information which is written in the posts - not the sidebar.
2. Linking - You should insert many links across your posts to encourage users to go and see what you’re talking about. For example, if I mention Techcrunch, the link will allow users who don’t know what I’m referring to, to go and find out. Links should also be blue and underlined as this is generally regarded as the default way of linking text. Users who see blue, underlined text will most likely assume it is anchored.
3. Descriptive titles - Blog post titles are also page titles, so make your page title descriptive but not too long. Imagine you want to search for the content of your post in Google, what type of words would you search for? Try to get them in, but don’t turn it into a SERP.
4. Use readable text - Using poor text is a usability problem that many bloggers get wrong. You should use a clear font like Arial or Verdana (which was designed for optimum Internet readability) and it should be at least size 11px. I’d recommend size 12px, which is what this blog uses. Make headings large and clear, even differ the font slightly from the main text if you want to, as this causes a greater division of content.
5. Make content clear to users - When making a post you should use short paragraphs of about 5-6 sentences so that it is more readable.You shouldn’t be writing a thesis within a blog post, keep them short but relevant. Try to use black text against a white background to make it stand out more, and break up paragraphs by adding bulleted lists or pictures to demonstrate your points. Put wide enough margins around your posts so the text doesn’t run into the sidebar, and the general text area width shouldn’t exceed about 2/3 of the width of the page.
6. Post finding & navigation - On sites with hundreds of posts it can take a long time to find what you’re looking for. You need to have a navigation of your posts preferably separated into categories, this way people can find your posts by looking in the right place. You should also include a search bar in case your users want to find something specific. Finally including an archives page on your site allows your users to browse your entire back catalogue. Some people include archive dates on their sidebar, but I think this uses up unnecessary space. Having a list of between 5-10 of your latest and most popular posts is a much more useful solution as it should stay automatically up-to-date.
7. Frequent usage - A successful blogger would look to add at least one post per day to their blog to keep interest and activity in the blog going. However it is also easy to post too many in posts in one day, some of which will be irrelevant to the context of your blog, which will begin to deter users from reading your posts. Keep on=topic, relevant and try to be unique as duplicate or copied content can work against you in Google’s rankings.
8. Author biography - You needn’t tell your life story, but a brief overview of who you are, what you do and why you are qualified to write your blog will go a long way towards validating your opinions and comments in the eyes of the user. Providing users with your credentials and experience will give them reason to trust what you say, and this will result in more users linking to and visiting your site.
9. Clear blog title & purpose - To make sure you and your users know what you’re writing about you should aim to make it very clear what topic areas your blog. Keep the subject range quite narrow as users want to be reading about a particular subject. I used to have a blog about Science, Technology and Multimedia which was too broad so I narrowed it down to Web 2.0 & Usability, which I can focus more clearly on. Come up with a good title for your blog and make a nice clear heading so people can tell instantly where they are. Add this title to your <title> tag and make sure this is written into any links coming into your blog.
10. Clear RSS feed - If you want more subscribers, there should be a prominent and explanatory RSS button, ideally situated in your header or near the top of your sidebar. Some users will not realize that there’s an RSS feed in the address bar, so you must make it easy for them to subscribe. You can create multiple RSS feeds by using applications such as MultiRSS, Feedburner, RSS Mixer, Yahoo! Pipes and many more.

I hope these blog usability guidelines were useful and appropriate to you. If I’ve missed anything out or you have an comments on the guidelines I’ve written, please leave a comment. I guess encouraging users to leave a comment as I’m doing now should also be a usability guideline. Well, I’ve done it now anyway…

by Adam Moss