I think this sums up my problem with the whole exercise:
"Some weblogs are really just private diaries intended only for a handful of family members and close friends. Usability guidelines generally don't apply to such sites, because the readers' prior knowledge and motivation are incomparably greater than those of third-party users. When you want to reach new readers who aren't your mother, however, usability becomes important. "
While recognizing the medium's primary importance as lowering the barriers to published communication to the everyman, he basically writes the everyman off his books before pronouncing his judgments.
I feel he's missed the entire point of blogs. If you don't understand or care for the primary use of a medium, then you're liable to write anything resembling it off as "poor usability." Sure, blogs are used to promote writers and offer news analysis and so forth. But those other applications still stem from the original use for blogs and continue to resemble regular blogs.
If you're expecting a blog to act like a web page for dummies, you're just not getting the point. Web sites are updated on a regular basis. Blogs aren't.
no subject
"Some weblogs are really just private diaries intended only for a handful of family members and close friends. Usability guidelines generally don't apply to such sites, because the readers' prior knowledge and motivation are incomparably greater than those of third-party users. When you want to reach new readers who aren't your mother, however, usability becomes important. "
While recognizing the medium's primary importance as lowering the barriers to published communication to the everyman, he basically writes the everyman off his books before pronouncing his judgments.
I feel he's missed the entire point of blogs. If you don't understand or care for the primary use of a medium, then you're liable to write anything resembling it off as "poor usability." Sure, blogs are used to promote writers and offer news analysis and so forth. But those other applications still stem from the original use for blogs and continue to resemble regular blogs.
If you're expecting a blog to act like a web page for dummies, you're just not getting the point. Web sites are updated on a regular basis. Blogs aren't.