Day 6: Get Some Fresh Perspective On Your Blog

Today’s challenge was one of the ones that Problogger posted that immediately grabbed me and sounded like a great idea. You created your blog yourself. You choose the theme, you picked out the sidebar items, you linked up every item and typed out every post. It’s your baby, your project, your labor of love. You probably know it like the back of your hand. But when was the last time you took a real close look at the back of your hand? It’s probably the last time you looked at your blog with FRESH eyes as well.

Your challenge for today is to share your blog with someone who has never seen it before. Choose a friend, colleague, family member or total stranger and ask them to sit down at your blog and explore it. If possible do it in person so you can see them actually doing it. Don’t give them any prep per se, just ask them to check it out and explore. Then see what they do. You can learn an incredible amount of information from just watching their explorations. Even if you can’t watch them do it yourself, ask them questions afterwards to see what their experience was like.

Where do they click?
What do they find?
What do they miss?
Are there parts of it that are unintuitive?
Are there features that you’ve built in that aren’t quite as ‘obvious’ as you thought they were?
Is it easy to navigate around or do they have trouble making their way from one section to another?
Is there any information that they wish you had provided that isn’t there?
Are there any parts that they didn’t understand the purpose of?
Any general suggestions that they have for improvement?
What parts of your blog were most memorable to them, 10-20 minutes after they explored it?

You get the idea. This is a great way to see your blog with fresh eyes and get a new perspective on something that has probably become so familiar to you that you don’t even see the details anymore. Take some good notes, because we’ll be using some of this information during other challenges throughout the month!

To be hones,t it’s also a great excuse to share your blog with other people. I can’t speak for anybody else, but I’m not one to brag. Most of my friends and family know that I have a website but have never seen my blog before. And I’m not one to force it upon them and such. So an activity like this is a great excuse to show off your site to somebody else that has never visited it before. And of course, if time allows, bonus points for doing this with more than one person!

Please share your experiences from this activity. Were you surprised by anything they had to say?

13 Comments

Martha Thornburgh
11/6/2008

Gave a workshop on Blogs and Wikis to High School Spanish teachers today. Thought I’d have them look at my blog and do a little critique. The first thing they noticed was the translator. They were not impressed. They said it didn’t do a very good job. They were most interested in the video, photos and slidesshows on the site. Very important not just have a bunch of words on a page even if those words are profound.

Sue Waters
11/6/2008

This activity was definitely good when I did it last year.

But I would also recommend adding in the twist of getting the participants to visit each others blogs and making suggestions as well. The reason is because your blog has two types of readers – inexperienced (which is what you normally gain from watching how your family and friends interact) and experienced (who look at different aspects).

Jay
11/7/2008

I’ll have to agree with Sue on this one. I had my wife take a look at my blog. She was sure what she was looking at, she didn’t have an idea of how a blog is supposed to be structured so it was just a little confusing to her. I can understand where she’s coming from, she doesn’t read blogs and to those that don’t the format is a little strange. I’ll have to consider her points and see what I can do to make my blog a little friendlier to the newbies!

Jay´s most recent blog post.. Day 5 Globalize Your Blog

Day 6: Get Some Fresh Perspective | My State of Flux
11/7/2008

[...] for today’s challenge (actually yesterday) I was supposed to have a set of fresh eyes take a look at the blog and offer [...]

RJ Stangherlin
11/7/2008

Can’t do this one live until next Tuesday when I get to return to school, but will do then. Just suggesting what should appear so obvious to me (and isn’t) is wonderful. But I did approach my next blog with my audience (students) in mind, hoping to click with them.

RJ Stangherlin´s most recent blog post.. Thirty Days To Being A Better Blogger: Day 6 With Teach 42

RJ Stangherlin
11/7/2008

Oh, and forgot to mention that I played with Zemanta–love it.

RJ Stangherlin´s most recent blog post.. Thirty Days To Being A Better Blogger: Day 6 With Teach 42

Martha Thornburgh
11/7/2008

Steve asked if the Spanish teachers suggest a better translator. Good question. They did not suggest a better one. I think that their point, (from a language teachers perspective) is that they translate word for word instead of translating for meaning. I understand Spanish quite well having lived in Ecuador and I was able to read and understand what was being said. It might not be the way I would teach students to speak the language, but I think that it does make my blog readable in a different language. I think the translator is cool and I’m keeping it…:) I know when I was in the classroom, my students had a lot of fun with the EPals translator. I can even see a high school Spanish teacher using the tool to have kids critique what isn’t quite right about the translation, just like the Spanish teachers were doing. That’d be a pretty powerful lesson about how languages work. Thanks again for doing this challenge. Learning lots and putting new interest in my blog.

Martha Thornburgh´s most recent blog post.. Will They Google Well?

Theresa White
11/7/2008

I think this is a great idea. I am often curious as to what other people think of my blog but haven’t taken the initiative to have anyone evaluate it. Thanks for the kick in the rear!!

Jennifer Dorman
11/7/2008

I’m going to try to get my parents to review my blog. In the meantime, I did post an online review form on my blog. Anyone reading this is invited to check out Cliotech and provide feedback. http://cliotech.blogspot.com/2008/11/cliotech-blog-review.html

Thanks!

Jennifer Dorman´s most recent blog post.. Blogging to a Global Audience

Pam Shoemaker
11/8/2008

I enjoyed this one. I asked someone who visits by blog occasionally for ideas. She hadn’t been there for a while, so she asked quesitons about some of my recent posts (she had never heard of Wordle and was compelled to read my most recent entry “Broccoli Brain” because of the title). Although I consider her tech-savvy, she did not know what the bookmark buttons were, and she didn’t understand what my badges were.

Chandell Asuncion » Blog Archive » Challenge: 30 Days to Being a Better Blogger
11/9/2008

[...] Day 6: Get Some Fresh Perspective: Is your site user friendly, clear and easy to navigate? [...]

Jennifer Dorman
11/9/2008

Thanks to the feedback I received through my personal conversations and the Google Form, I cleaned up my sidebar. I admit that I was addicted to “badges” and my sidebar was starting to look more like the Vegas strip than a professional blog. I am also in the process of working on the CSS for my template to widen my main blogging column so that embedded content is not squished. Thanks, again!

Jennifer Dorman´s most recent blog post.. Geotagged News – Cool Way to Get Your News