[...] Developer Mitch Canter to complete. We involved the community in the iterations of the design, and frequently asked for feedback. I even used controversial crowdSPRING to crowdsource my banner design, (thanks [...]

[...] involved the community in the iterations of the design, and frequently asked for feedback. I even used controversial crowdSPRING to crowdsource my banner design, based on [...]

I like the length of your posts, they are perfect, but it would be nice if your homepage posts included the title plus the first paragraph or so. Since you write so much it would be nice to scroll through the articles a bit faster looking for the ones I want. Just bit more user friendly for my reading preferences.

Do consider addding a “Share” widget.

Your list of “categories” could do with a workover, though. It’s more of a list of tags, in my opinion, and not particularly useful (at least to me).

If I were in your shoes I’d invest some time in sorting my posts into 5-7 solid categories, then maybe offering an RSS feed for each?

Apart from that, I appreciate all the time you put into this site. Thanks!

If you’re considering a switch in platforms, I’ve found Expression Engine to be very flexible while producing SeeChangeNow.org.

Your search results & category pages could be improved with showing excerpts. Right now we have to either use Google or sift through entire posts.

I suspect aesthetics are a low priority. We come here for your analysis and I’d wager a large audience consumes your blog through readers. However, you can justify a change with some of the usability and promotional mods mentioned Curt Monash. HTH!

I’m Curt Monash’s blog designer (for his self-hosted blogs, not his Network World one), and I followed his link here. I agree with much of what has been said so far. As I see it, there are two major issues with the current design:

1) It looks “out of the box.” The quality and quantity of content you’re producing merit something special and unique, something that looks like it was designed just for this purpose.

2) The current sidebar isn’t very helpful. Even at a fairly high resolution (1280×1024), I have to do quite a bit of scrolling before I even start seeing a category list.

I would suggest seriously considering a three-column layout. That way one could be devoted to navigation, and the other to profile/promotional stuff. You might also consider moving some of the current sidebar links (such as Contact) up into the header section.

If you prefer to stick to a two-column design, I think navigation needs to be MUCH more prominent. Much of the stuff that’s currently “above the fold” in the sidebar doesn’t deserve prime real estate. (Flickr Photos is the main example that jumps out at me.)

As a new visitor, I’d also love to see a list of “Featured Posts” or “Hot Topics” or something like that to get me started.

Another idea: Since some of the category names are rather vague, you might consider adding descriptions to them. That way when people hover over them, they’ll see a more detailed description. (I turned that feature off in Curt’s blogs, because he uses HTML formatting in his descriptions and the source code would show up in the hover, but it might work well for you.)

Good luck!
Melissa

Be careful with a magazine theme

My sister does a great job with WordPress. She redid Sean O’D’s blog – http://communitygrouptherapy.com/
She’s at http://solutionsbyheidi.com

You can also change colors, fonts and what’s in the sidebar right now. You would not believe what a simple banner and changing some “CSS” elements would get you. It looks like you consider this a total re-design, such as getting a new theme. I don’t think you need to go that far. I think you have plenty already here.

I would call this more of a “sprucing up” effort. I do believe you would benefit from having more “social media” type of applications, which there are now a plethora of plug-ins for on the WordPress Codex (hint!).

Have you seen this video of Facebook connect and Wordpress?

http://www.insidefacebook.com/2008/09/11/sixjumps-creates-facebook-connect-wordpress-plugin/

Speaking of thought leadership and design, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the Forrester.com design!

Check out my blog if interested: http://ryanagraves.com

You’re content is good. It’s succinct, relevant, timely and always has value. However, every time I jump off my RSS feed to view your blog I always get a bit squeamish, cause I think — “man, this guy is so much better than this!” I guess what I’m trying to say is I think your credibility is being lost more than you would thing to your first time visitors. Overall look and feel is always a factor in the way you judge credibility online. You know this. I mean, you’re from Forrester? Things should look clean and polished right? With the content you produce that is such on the edge of things that are breaking — and you are looked to as the “thought leader”, shouldn’t the design look something a little more compelling that is not 2006?

Don’t get me wrong — content is always king, I understand that. You’ve got that. All I’m suggesting is you clean-up on the edges. Maybe employ a logo that doesn’t look like you grabbed it from a windows template and a blog design that is a little more custom tailored and doesn’t look like you just added plug-ins at-will (don’t take those as low blows comments please. I also do realize most of the influential bloggers out there have sub-par creative designs).

When I look at your design I wish you had the following (these elements would make me think “yep, not only does this guy write great content, and is able to translate things quickly and make it relevant to his audience, but yep he also looks the part too). They are as follows:

1.) A blog header that is more significant and compelling and contemporary to your personal brand. Something that looks unique to you.
2.) Your widgets and call-outs down the side are custom tailored to your overall design.
3.) Each of your entries have an easy enough to find “share” or “email” button, rather than just “comment”. Maybe even “rate”.
4.) You produce so many “types of content”, I wish you had areas in which you stored ‘recent video interviews’ vs. ‘recent podcasts’ , vs. ‘recent blog posts’.
5.) I’m not sure why — and it may be Wordpress, but I always have trouble finding entries using your search, I have to resort to Google custom search.
6.) Overall layout of your blog template entires (headers, font) is refreshed. Possibly us colors to break up headlines and sub-heads. I find myself wondering where headings start and stop for the post I’m reading to the next new post.

When it’s all said and done, you’ll probably read this and think — hey he’s got a couple good points but you know my audience that consumes my information is primarily RSS and my existing members don’t mind the design. I won’t redesign.

All I’m saying, is for a guy who is so polished at writing well and explaining things succinctly at a major firm my expectations for you as a thought leader is you would “look the part”. You’re driving a Toyota Camry that’s reliable, solid, and safe — but it doesn’t have the prestige and appeal as the Lexus that does all the same things, just is wrapped up in a better package. (gosh that’s a bad metaphor, but I hope you get my point). After all — isn’t your overall intention of the blog to present yourself as a thought leader so that your job at Forrester is augmented?

–
@ramseym

I’m thankful, keep the feedback coming.