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Form vs. Function

Seems like Scoble's on about form vs. function again...Not really much to add here as the designers have tried to tear a strip off him while the readers have said "no design".

Kind of sounds like Windows vs. DOS all over again. Hell, everyone loved DOS and the Unix command line, right?

Can you imagine making a phone call if it actually involved trying to tell the phone what phone switch to go to each time you wanted to do something?

Good design makes things easier to access - but the point on blogs is simple. "Here are my thoughts. If I can make it easier to read quickly, I'll do it - if I can't, tough luck." Eventually better design will win out and everyone will be happy. Until then, read it in your own view.

I say this after having played with various Blogger templates ad finitum only to have to copy and paste other code into it.

The biggest downside to bad or lack of design is that your message may actually get lost, because of a confusing interface.

Disagree? Consider Windows XP's support for digital cameras. We had an old Intel digital camera that when you plugged it in, up popped XP's Camera and Scanner Wizard which worked great. Just got a new Fuji FinePix and the Camera and Scanner Wizard no longer pops up. You can TELL it to pop-up under Properties - but does it? Nope! Now Trish, my wife, curses whenever we have to transfer pictures because it's three steps instead of one. Wouldn't it be so much easier if it all worked properly from day one?

Likewise with reading a blog. If you want better design, read a newspaper or check out FeedDemon's RSS Reader. NewsGator comes close with its summary view but the basis for the RSS feed is the content, the Blog URL is for the design.

Who reads Scoble via his web page anyways? Most I know do it via RSS.

Scobleizer: Microsoft Geek Blogger

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