Above the Fold: Everything in Order

What a Few Tweaks Can Do

I met Carole Hicks on Twitter. Then she asked a question via email and, before I replied, I made her an offer. I said I have this feature called, Above the Fold, I’d like to bring back to my blog. Would you be game for consultation? She was most agreeable. Thus starts the saga of tweaking her blog with the fabulous title —

Everything in Order [dot] com
But the fabulous title was outshouted by some noisy color …

So we got to work together. Here’s how the Above the Fold Tweak Process works

I make a “before” screenshot.
We talk through some changes for readability.
The blogger makes the changes. (In this case, Carole took notes for her developer.)
We talk while the tweaks are in process. (She passed them on.)
I take an “after” screenshot and share the results in a post.

Tweaking Everything in Order

The blog: Everything n Order . com
Everything in Order, creative problem-solving…beautiful ideas.
URL: : http://www.everythingnorder.com
Blogger: Carole Hicks

Before

This is EverythingnOrder.com before we started.

Three Tweaks that We Agreed Upon

In this series, we’ll concentrate only three important tweaks for each blog that is featured. On Carole’s blog, those three tweaks were these.

The backgrounds were overpowering — the coral wrap and the coral type were too vibrant and vibrating.
The sidebar needed focus and less text / and disappeared on the post page. (Sorry I missed the sidebar in the screen shot.)
A search box and ways to subscribe were missing.

Carole and I discussed how the true black background played into the bright shade of the coral outer wrap to make it almost vibrate. I suggested another shade of color with a touch more black in the coral and a black background that was a little more charcoal. blink test, the feed button wins. We decided that it would be a much stronger presentation if the title got that first attention. Folks would remember where they were and where they wanted to return.

We talked about the tag cloud and other sidebar information. I mentioned that the large tags seemed to be saying that’s all or mostly all she talked about — was that the first impression she wanted to be giving? Carole decided that might not be her whole story.

When choosing text the type size needs to match the line length. If they don’t match, the eye has trouble doing the “return sweep” to the next line correctly. As often happens, the line was too long for the size of the type in the body text. We shortened the main body copy block and increased the type size.

We talked about reasons that a search box and subscription options were important.

We made other changes. Can you see them?

For the results, turn the page now.

After

This is EverythinginOrder.com this morning. Click to enlarge.

Carole’s Turn to Talk

Carole, tell us about your blog.

I originally created my blog purely to have a way to share my thoughts with my family and friends (but especially to my daughters). I was inspired by a book I read called “One Month to Live”. The book instructed the reader to create a list of five things you would do immediately if you knew you only had a month to live. My top item: write a book or blog to be able to pass on everything that I think is meaningful and of value. My intention was to create a space where I could share the daily goings-on of all the aspects of my life — the mundane and ordinary aspects, the rich and meaningful adventures, the people and places…but, most importantly, to be able to pass on thoughts and ideas that I hope will provide value to others. Six months later, I find myself opening up and sharing my life with the world outside of my immediate family. A lot of the new traffic is coming from the Twitter community. I’m receiving a lot of encouragement and positive responses. I am having the time of my life — both on and offline!

Why the name “Everything in Order”?

Many years ago when I was in between corporate advertising/marketing jobs, I needed a way to pull in some income so I began doing in-home/office professional organizing and worked under this name. I’ve always been a GTD (getting things done) fan and am slightly obsessive compulsive about prioritizing and creating order. Is my own home and personal space perfectly organized at all times? No, but I know how to teach others and encourage and inspire them to make progress.

What advice do you think made the most difference? In what way?

The best advice you offered, Liz, was ALL OF IT. If I have to elaborate on one piece of advice it would have to be the color advice. My black background was an intense, saturated black. The outside area was a very hot, electric coral. When your eyes tried to read the text, the hot coral color drew your eye out to the edge which made it hard to stay focused on reading the content. I felt the same way Liz did but I hadn’t yet put my finger on it. I was too engaged personally and emotionally to be able to put it into words. I was so thrilled with the design Curtis Estridge created for me, that I was a bit hesitant to even tweak it. Again, I was very happy with the design and choice of colors…but dumbing down the black and adding some black to the coral made all the difference.

Another great recommendation from Liz was to create a separate page for the “About Me” section. After researching lots of blogs, I’ve seen it done many different ways. For me, personally, I think it is a huge plus to have the “about me” text moved onto separate page that you have to click to get to. It didn’t make sense to use up valuable real estate on the front page. Having that space freed up allowed me to add a search box, rss feed and email button (all prompted by Liz).

How have your readers responded to the changes?

I’ve received a few comments via email and twitter and they’ve all been very positive! No one could be happier than I am about the changes. I am simply thrilled. Liz gave me constructive criticism that was spot on. Her help has been priceless!

Carole, you were a pleasure. It was so fun to read your DM after with the word THRILLED! in capital letters.

What other design tweaks do you suggest that Jonathan might consider?

–ME “Liz” Strauss