Tell me why my design sucks/rocks

I just redesigned my personal web design/fiction/reading/everything blog. It's not revolutionary, but it's nice and clean and I like it. Let me know what you think! Any glaring omissions? Design choices that make you vomit a little in your mouth? Decisions so brilliant that you're in awe of my mad skillz?

http://beckism.com/

I haven't tossed any designs out for general critique here before, so I'm interested to see what people think.

Edit: also, apologies in advance for anyone who views the site under IE. There's a couple graphical glitches that I'll probably be fixing this coming weekend, but that weren't bad enough to keep me from launching (I needed to get the darn thing out the door). Normally I wouldn't publish anything without a thorough IE bugfix, but given my blog's readership I figured it wasn't going to be much of an issue if the fixes were a week late.

The sidebar is distracting, I couldnt find a good color scheme for it, though white probably isn't your best background color.

Its awfully white and empty. Kind of like throwing a rock into the ocean... not much there design wise.

Its super simple, i'll give you that much

Originally Posted by Village Idiot The sidebar is distracting, I couldnt find a good color scheme for it, though white probably isn't your best background color.

Hmm, the sidebar does draw focus a bit, particularly if you're looking at it for the first time. This is a tricky issue to get around, though. I could always go for the super-slimmed down version (just a small number of text links over to the side), but it didn't feel quite right for this site. I wanted a little bit of color, even if it wasn't very much.

I'm thinking of trying some purely CSS design changes just as an exercise for myself. I'll definitely experiment with drawing focus in at the left if/when I do.

Originally Posted by erikm Its awfully white and empty. Kind of like throwing a rock into the ocean... not much there design wise.

I would counter by saying that the minimalist look that I created entailed a lot of design. Not graphic design, true; I'm not a graphic designer by a long shot. But I spent a lot of effort working on the navigational flow and layout, and tweaking the CSS to get things working in a way that I hoped would draw the visitor into the site and encourage them to read an article or two. The previous version of the blog featured a number of categories across several distinct sections of the site, and drawing everything into a cohesive, simple whole was difficult.

It's not for everyone, but I'd argue that minimalism does not necessarily equate with lack of design.

It's interesting that both of you commented on the use of a white background. Historically, I've used a slightly off-white background because I find a very light gray to be easier to read on. For this design, though, I went with white for its lightness and high contrast with the text. Any suggestions what you think would work better?

I think if you toned down the white it'd be a lot easier to look at

Not sure how you tone down white ^^

Ok ill be honest and agree that i don't like it. Firstly i don't understand the point of the top text. Firstly it doesn't make sense at all. It imply that you usually write 'stuff' that does suck if you look at it in detail but quite frankly makes no sense. Would you consider the top bit useful information? Personally i wouldn't, the only thing you need to keep is your name and even that isn't really title worthy. If i went onto your site there is not a chance that i would remember the address ever again.

I see that your going for the informal approach, but there is informal and there is childish and you are on the later. It instantly puts me off, why would i want to read a blog where the title makes no sense and it looks like a 5 year olds work. The content may be amazing but you won't get me on there long enough to know.

Considered revising the number of articles on a page. My finger aches from the scrolling. There isn't a hope that anyone will read all of the page just as one long text. You need to break it up more, fewer artices (extracts) makes for an easier time finding content that you are interested in. Why make people look at loads of full length articles when they are interested in a certain article.

And last but not least the design... Personally im a fan of minimalism yet there is minimalism and there is plain boring. You need some graphical elements to draw focus and just make it a better experience. A page of writing can't possibly inspire someone to read your articles. It's like having the choice to read a book on trains or a comic book, which would you rather choose. I know which one i'd take.

I hope you don't get offended by my fairly harsh criticism but i mean to help and present a point.

Originally Posted by Immersion It imply that you usually write 'stuff' that does suck if you look at it in detail but quite frankly makes no sense. Would you consider the top bit useful information?

"I write stuff sometimes which mostly doesn't suck" means that it does suck? You lost me there. The lead-off text is actually intended more as a way to draw the reader; it isn't a title. Obviously it didn't work for you, which is interesting to hear. While I was designing, I played with the idea of varying the text (either by page or randomly). Would this make it more interesting/fun for you, or would you still look for the site's title in that space?

Originally Posted by Immersion Considered revising the number of articles on a page. My finger aches from the scrolling.

It is a very long page, which was one of my main reservations when publishing full-text articles. I'm considering ways to work around this problem, and reducing the number of articles is one of them. Problem with WordPress is that this change is global, which is a pain.

Originally Posted by Immersion You need to break it up more, fewer artices (extracts) makes for an easier time finding content that you are interested in. Why make people look at loads of full length articles when they are interested in a certain article.

I actually disagree with you here. Some of the blogs that I like the best use full-text articles because it allows the visitor to very easily read the most recent articles. My own tendencies and watching my own stats also tells me that few people use the categories and archive pages. Additionally, most of the stuff I'm publishing on this blog is of the read once variety, and those articles that aren't will probably only survive on direct links (from search engines or other blogs).

Originally Posted by Immersion You need some graphical elements to draw focus and just make it a better experience. A page of writing can't possibly inspire someone to read your articles. It's like having the choice to read a book on trains or a comic book, which would you rather choose.

Although I think some sort of logo/branding would be a good thing (check out the favicon to see just how little inspiration I've got in this area), I completely disagree with this. I'd take the book every time. I occasionally read comics or graphic novels, but a book is far more compelling for me.

Originally Posted by Immersion I hope you don't get offended by my fairly harsh criticism but i mean to help and present a point.

I may disagree with you on some points, but I'm hard to offend. Plus I understand the difference between me and my designs/opinions/what-have-you, which I've found is a useful skill if you're going to ask for critique online.

"I write stuff sometimes which mostly doesn't suck"

Yes it is saying you occasionally write stuff that doesn't completely suck, which imply that the rest of your 'stuff' does suck.