Testing Templates

Many factors go into launching a blog (starting with "Do I even want to create one?" followed shortly by "Do I have the commitment, stamina, and substance to keep it going?"). Once a decision is made, a critical though often overlooked element is the blog's look.

To many, design seems secondary. After all, it's the content -- the words -- that count. However, like any other form of communication, it's a package deal. Visual appeal goes hand in hand with sterling (and stirring) content. Ask yourself, "What impression am I trying to make?" Ideally, the blog's look should complement, mirror, and/or reinforce the content and character of the blog -- "framing the voice" as it were.

The look is rooted in a template. Blogger offers a variety of these. The option you choose should be appropriate to the topic, tone, and personality of the blogger. I'm the type of guy who believes in the primacy of the message. You lose points (and readers) if your audience is baffled or sidetracked by the design.

• I favor a muted, no-nonsense scheme. I don't want colors, patterns, or features to clash with/distract from the content.
• The presentation should be as straightforward and as easy to digest as possible.
• The reader should focus solely on the text, images, or whatever else you happen to embed.

With that as my guiding philosophy, I chose Minima for my blog The Reconstructed Man. It's simple and stark... and I like the soothing blue font. (No surprise that I selected the modest -- though slightly more vibrant -- Sand Dollar design for this blog.)

In contrast, the No. 897 template is a welter of color and activity ("cluttered and busy" in layman's terms). From my standpoint, No. 897 is too luminous and fragmented, like a stained glass window. And, in the same way I abhor a too-small font size, I've never been a fan of white type on a color background -- too hard on these aging eyes. (Black type on a pastel background doesn't fare much better in my book. Reminds me too much of an entry-level resume.)

I have a similar gripe with the Dots template -- too much going on.

• The template is too frivolous and playful for my taste, the polka-dot pattern borrowed from gift wrap. (To its credit, posts in this template are only bookended by the pattern, not printed over it. The reader looks to these unsullied posts for respite.)
• The logic of the design eludes me. It needs to be obvious where the parts are and why they're there. Call me old school but I'm more comfortable with a newspaper-like banner head, not one relegated to a corner.

To be honest, a number of the Blogger templates struck me as being regimented, rigid, boxy. The templates I ended up with seemed more open and spacious. That's my preference: a clean, well-structured look that effortlessly directs the reader's eye and promises some much-needed breathing room.