What would Jacob do?

Over time, it's become clear to me that my blog, like most blogs, is strongly biased towards regular visitors in terms of usability. When a new visitor comes, the lack of context can be a bit overwhelming and confusing. But how can I prevent the blog from becoming an unfriendly bog of confusing references and obscure mentions?

It's just doesn't feel natural for me write in a way where I provide exposition for every person or thing I mention that might not be common knowledge. I do try to get around this by judicious use of links, but that doesn't strike me as a perfect solution. For instance, when I talk about Conny, I link to her blog, but a first time visitor has to dig a lot deeper to learn who she is.

For some reason, things like this really bug me. I can't help it. So either I have to go on medication again, or I have to fix it. I've decided what's needed is a combination supplemental reference and glossary. I'm calling it Bloglossary. Soon certain links will have a small graphic tag next to them, to indicate it's a Bloglossary link. Clicking the link will open up a window that will contain background information, and related links. Eventually, the Bloglossary links will be tagged, indexed and searchable too. The thing that makes it really work for me, though, is I can add and update Bloglossary entries in a manner not very different from updating my blog, or making a comment. I just open up a web form, enter or edit the information, and that's it.

Once I get the kinks out and have given the thing a good run, I'll make the code publicly available. It only requires PHP.

The other usability gaff for first time visitors is the archives are sorted in reverse day order. Ideally, the archives should list chronologically, so one could catch up simply by scrolling down. Fixing this, due to how Blogger works involves a bit of engineering, but it's on the to-do list.
posted 12:15 PM | link |