Why the best blogs are like sitcoms
Overview
One of my goals for the new year is to start writing a ‘blog’. I use that word loosely, as I think it has too many connotations with it, but essentially a location to post my interests, thoughts and ever growing inquisitive discoveries. The word ‘blog’ defined by Merriam Webster is: a Web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer.
My background is as a designer, not as a writer—but I am finding it more and more important that I am able to communicate not only visually, but written and verbal formats. To quickly refer to best practices in business, methodologies and beyond.
The blogs that I find most compelling are those set up like a good sitcom. A short intro, obstacles and challenges, lessons learned, and a closing bow. (Yes, I love a happy ending). The articles are written in such a way that there are analogies that I can relate to, various perspectives that I can associate with, and a sense of personality that keeps me coming back for more.
A written sitcom. (As you will discover with my ever growing escapes.)
Obstacles & Challenges
Not sure what to write
They say the hardest thing to do with anything is to get started. That is where I am. To start I am going to think of challenges, discoveries and/or thoughts that I have always wanted to explore deeper, but never had the chance. Items in my day to day, that I would like to reflect and research just 5% more. Secondly, starting with the ‘title’ of the post as something short and able to be addressed within a half hour analysis. Perhaps these will be my beginning ‘backlog’.
- Why interaction design is actually 100 years old
- How to become a better designer in three easy steps
- My five favorite shopping sites, and why
- What elements make a strong website
- What is a brand?
- Why I love shopping at Giant
- Successful brands and how their in-house creative teams are organized
- Me as a walking commerce store
- Why shopping in the physical world also encompasses the digital world
- Why twitter is where my real friends are
- So you want a website, now what?
- How to approach a redesign of a website
- Where do ideas come from?
- My process of creating a kid app
Who will read
Perhaps it would be easier to write if I had a target audience. My challenge is that my audience can be anyone—from the end user, fellow designers to a business owner. My design interaction spans the gamete of audiences, and it is hard to differentiate into one silo. Due to this, I will have a defined “Audience” blurb to help me communicate each entry towards that reader. This way, after a couple months, the ‘readers’ can sort by whom they are…and filter out the others.
Changing theme
Similar to the challenge I have with the audience, I am having a hard time saying ‘this is the mantra of this blog’. These are the themes I will discuss and stay focused on. At this point, I think it is best to start with three high level themes that I will try to address. Design, Business & Technology. Let’s see where it takes us.
All ready been done (old news)
Lastly, the feeling that what I write is old stale un-interesting news. Well, it’s true. So now that we have that out of the way, we can move on. Yes, what I am writing is not earth-shattering, nor something you couldn’t find somewhere else…but it is a place for me to reflect and form an opinion. Or perhaps give you a different perspective than what you may have thought. Regardless, this is an area for me to reflect, and share my observations and thoughts…on maybe some not so new news.
Lessons Learned
As this is my first post, I can not say I have any lessons learned, other than….I am starting, and it feels good. I have overcome the hurdle of the blank white paper, and now am moving forward with my entries. It is best to use a ‘pencil’ for the theme/goal of the website, and revisit it after you get started. Just like a website design, you won’t really know how to optimize the design until the end-user and content owners start using it. This will be my area to better myself, my writing and form opinions on what I see around me, with the goal that perhaps I will inspire someone to do the same.
Closing Bow
Today I have overcome the hurdle of three years in the making, and I am starting a blog. Let the inspirations and observations roll!
This Post:
Audience: designer, writer, business owner, product owner, all
Topics: design, writing, thoughts, general, self-help,
