One of the things I’ve been working on the most lately has been about maintaining and developing knowledge logs or corporate blogs. One of the latest I’ve worked on has been TechCrunch, an extremely active Web 2.0-related website, that’s getting a lot of hype even if only a few weeks old. This post documents the why’s and how’s of redesigning Techcrunch and presents some thoughts on how to create blogs for mass audiences, particularly those of a technical nature. Shall we begin?

One thing you should always keep in mind when we’re talking about designing blogs, be those for corporate-intranet knowledge management or general public viewing (but mostly in the latter) is that the main purpose is to read and write information (even if - I’ll just use my usual example - you’re just talking about your cats). This means we’ve just found or main interest point - text.

It is a regular mistake for companies to request redesigns that are focussed on fancy graphics, most of the times ignoring that the real purpose is communicating, establishing a relationship between them and their audience. When redesigning TechCrunch then, my main point of focus was balancing looks and functionality - content readability and accessibility should always be the top priority. The goal is to make people come back for more of both - the good lucks, and the great content. If you draw attention among the two sides of the audience, you’ll naturally succeed.

Lets talk about rules:

1) Rule number 1: KISS. You know, the good old “keep it simple, stupid”. Aim for looks, yes, but only if information is first on your priority list. Stop giving me the “if it looks good, it has to be good” thing, because it’s not always the case.

2) Second rule, immediately dependant on the first: aim for the fastest loading website possible. People can only stand a website loading for a certain ammount of time. There are raw statistics on this, believe it or not. Have you ever found yourself immediately closing a browser window if you don’t see any content after 5 or 6 seconds of waiting? Right, me too. That’s why clearly structured and fast loading content is so important - you need people to read. It’s your goal.

3) The obvious rule: write great content. TechCrunch covers the web 2.0, something that’s on the tip of every tongue right now. With the plethora of websites, projects and entrepreneurs out there it is quite easy to start profiling and talking about everything. One thing to have in mind at all times is that one piece of good content beats 10 pieces of poorly selected news bits. It will gather attention, because profiles will be exclusive - if you get profiled it means you’re worth it. This leads to a much better, concise and homogeneous audience: people who read your content, want to read your content.

4) Finally, the last rule: Don’t over-do things. Don’t add links you don’t need, don’t add images that will clutter the looks of an article. Don’t add a paragraph that looks like a filler. Great content means select content most of the times, and if you keep that in mind, you’ll be respecting our rule number 3.

Wrapping up:

Why am I using TechCrunch as an example of how to think about weblogs when they’re meant for mass audiences? Because it fits that profile; but mostly because it allowed me to step back from the designer perspective over 70% of the time, and actually think about issues that users care about. What I mean by this (call this my final piece of advice) is that redesigning something (and writing content) requires a lot of looking at your final products from a “client” (or reader) point of view. If you don’t need it, don’t use it.

Remember, “keep it simple, stupid”.