Visual Aesthetics
Content is king. But design is queen. You could write the most gripping articles on your blog, but if your site is too disorganized or simply too drab, then people might find you uninteresting. But if your blog design is too loud and too jampacked, then you would just end up giving your readers a headache.
We judge visual aesthetics by the ability of a blog?s design elements to blend in harmony with one another, from the site layout to the color scheme, to the fonts used. You can go for a minimalist look, or prefer colorful artistic renditions, but what?s important is that your blog is pleasing to the eye. Also, we give a plus for originality in design!
User Friendliness
You can have the most beautiful-looking blog with the most outstanding writings, but if your site is difficult to use and navigate, no one would bother to return and read up on what you have to say. User friendliness and usability are important design considerations in determining a great blog.
First, your site should be readable. The font size should be large enough and the contrast level high enough so your readers would not have to go looking for magnifying glasses or to squint in order to read your copy. Then, your blog should be navigable. Readers should not have a hard time going around your blog?it would be great to have the convenience of one-click links to your homepage, archives, links, and profile. And for the love of blogging, please refrain from incorporating those snazzy animations and multimedia files, because they only slow up loading of your blog, and not everyone can load them up. You would only end up frustrating your readers.
We judge user friendliness by a blog?s being readable, navigable, usable, and by how easily your site loads up on the web browser. Help us explore your blog better!
Reading Enjoyment
Content is king. One primary motivation for reading a blog is great content. A good blog should have interesting information that comes in a well-written package. Whether you?re talking about your life story or news on business matters, or any topic at all, your blog should be gripping enough to keep your readers coming back.
Another important aspect of blogs is feedback. Eliciting a lively conversation is as important as writing the original blog posting itself. Blogs have commenting features for a reason, and that?s to give readers a venue to voice out their own thoughts in response to what you write.
Also important are the voice and tone of your blog. Writings on a blog should not sound stiff and cold, because it should primarily be written with a personal touch, or it wouldn?t be a blog at all!
We judge reading enjoyment according to the quality of a blog author?s writings, and whether his/her articles are interesting enough to merit a good discussion by readers.
Useful Info
There are tens of millions of blogs out there, and most of them just echo each other. Many bloggers are fond of quoting (and mis-quoting) other news sources and even other blogs. What makes one a good blogger is the ability to present or link to useful information on one?s blog. What makes someone a great blogger is the ability to put up information that is both useful and original.
We judge usefulness of information based on how a blogger can point out great stuff elsewhere (i.e. through links) and how a blogger can synthesize these bits of information gathered from other sources. Originality is definitely a plus. And don?t skimp on introducing yourself?if we find a blogger?s life story or profile interesting enough, then this is definitely a big plus!
Overall Experience
Synergy means that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. The same goes for blogs. Based on the above factors?reading enjoyment, visual aesthetics, user friendliness, and useful info?we can now determine whether a blog is great, good, or just another blog out of millions, with no impressive quality at all.
We judge overall experience by how enjoyable, interesting, and read-worthy we think a blog is. And we give the Bloggy Award to blogs with great content, design, usability and interesting info that we think are deserving of being bookmarked and oft revisited.