ISO50

I find it functional, don’t really know what else could be done. It has all the needed features, doesn’t it?..

Well, I think it’s good the way it is now. In fact I’d bet that most of frequent readers of your blog do it by RSS. (In my case it’s Google Reader.)

Well Scott, I’d say you on the right path to give newer visitors a better uderstanding of the blog.

In response to your comment. Maybe things like(which I am sure you already know), “The visual work of Scott Hansen” at the top of the blog page confuses them. Also, instead of calling the portfolio column “LATEST WORK”, maybe call it “MY LATEST WORK” -just so visitors distinguish the difference.. even if it is only subconscious.

Oh, and the “ABOUT” page gives a nice explanation of how everything works. Maybe edit it into a very short version to be added somewhere on the home page?

But I gotta say, I have always loved your blog and design+layout. I do subscribe via RSS but just visit the webpage from time to time just to see the design. One of the best on the web, hands down. You have a lot to live up to with the new design…. oh.. no pressure :-)

A few weeks back I Google’d ISO 50, with in the intension of finding a link to your portfolio. Google then brought up it’s list of results..

1. ISO50 – The Visual Work of Scott Hansen (ISO 50 Blog)
2. ISO50 – The Visual Work of Scott Hansen » Blog Archive » ISO50 (Blog)
3. ISO50 – The Visual Work of Scott Hansen (Portfolio)
4. ISO50 Shop – powered by Merchline (Shop)

I wasn’t sure which was your portfolio as both websites have the same title. And their descriptions didn’t provide me with the necessary information.
It’s these titles and descriptions that I feel could use some refinement.

The Blog’s description – ISO50 – The visual work of San Francisco based artist and musician (Tycho) Scott Hansen.

The Portfolio’s description –
Visit the ISO50 Blog for up to date news and work · Visit the ISO50 Shop · Visit Tychomusic.com, AlL content copyright © 2004-2009 S.Hansen.

I’d like to see the blog’s title/description mention exactly what its it and same with the portfolio. I’m not super website / SEO savvy, so I’m not sure how simple this is to change. I guess what your trying to achieve is a more efficient site for your visitors, and this certainly would be beneficial for visitors coming from a Google search.

In terms of content, I love posts about hardware, photoshop efficiency/workflows, the design process, the recording process and a post many moons ago – “I’ve added a new category to the blog: “Photoshop Techniques”. I’ll be posting random tips and techniques I have found to be useful when working with Adobe Photoshop.”

I’m still awaiting these tips and techniques, I understand these type of posts require more preparation and time to execute. I’m positive they would be appreciated by the readers to make the worth wild.

Hey Scott,

It would be cool to have some author profile pages since you’re not the only one writing. You could also make the post author a little bit more visible in the post layout.

And in the past I had some problems with long archive pages. You use some kind of plugin that generates the headers with the trade gothic extended font. Maybe it’s possible to make shorter pages and streamline the process of generating the header images.

And check this great article on how to make your wordpress theme faster.

For the rest: great blog. I love the culture. Good luck!

– Leon

I don’t know if I’m the only one who does this, but when I’m reading an interesting blog (which yours definitely is) and I find a post that I want to read, I’ll hit Command and click the post title so it opens in a new tab, and then I continue scrolling down the list to read other posts. However, I can’t do that with this one because the headlines are in Flash. It took me a while to figure out why the posts weren’t opening in a new tab, and for a few seconds I even thought my Command key wasn’t working!

I really like the content of this blog, and each contributor brings his personal touch building a steady stream of design news. You obviously know what you are doing, so please take the following as humble suggestions from an ignorant.
At first I was confused by the top section of the blog: when reading a post and its comment, it is common that the top picture links back to the home page, but not on this blog. It goes to the shop instead, now I know to click on the “ISO 50” logo. Maybe it would be an improvement to have the “random work” column dedicated to advertising your portfolio and shop. You could make navigation bar (Enter Exhibit, ISO50 Shop…) more visible, and closer to the top left of the page, since this is where the eye tends to start the reading from. I guess the rest of the “blog” column should be dedicated to the blog content, so that the latest post don’t appear at the bottom of the page when opening a window.
The 2nd and central column seems to contain everything you didn’t really know where to locate, without wanting to remove altogether… It could do with a rethink, once the rest is in place.
keep up the good work!

Hi Scott, I think that one of the areas for your consideration should be the fact that probably most of your reader-base accesses this blog via RSS. I use google reader, and the biggest issue I have with that is when I want to listen to posts by Jakub, I have to visit the blog itself (I know what a drag eh?). I think it is sad that the design that you work so hard on doesn’t translate to what many people end up experiencing in their RSS.

As for this dilemma of your web presence, I think the solution would be a splash page under the url ISO50.com. This could clearly define your sub categories like Tycho Music, Design, ISO50 Blog as being under one roof but remaining distinct. You will just have to find some clever way of reversing that effect while visitors immersed in each category.

So you’ve got two major target groups, your readers/frequents, and newcomers.

As a reader, here are some of the things I like;

Random Work: I like this idea because it includes things are aren’t in your portfolio, things that I would otherwise have to dig for in the blog.

Light text on a dark background: Even though this goes against what many would say about long amounts of text, I think it is one of the aspects of the blog that keep it distinct from much of the stuff out there. I wouldn’t change that.

I find that when opening the homepage of the site, it loads significantly slower then other sites, especially on slower machines. This is probably caused by the length of the pages, the significant amount of images and the sIFR post headers. Finding some way of speeding up the loading would be greatly appreciated.
Also, perhaps shrinking the large header image of the site would be useful for people with small screens, so that more of the content is visible without having to scroll too much.
Love your blog and the interesting content on it. Keep up the great work!

-Leigh

Maybe I have not been able to find it but having a tag cloud certainly adds to the blogs usability. Blog readers often use tag cloud to fing information on the topic that interests them. A tag cloud in a prominent place is a common but nevertheless useful technique and adds to usability.

I think maybe it is time for you to look into really branding yourself separately. At the top of this blog, it distinctly says “the visual portfolio of scott hansen,” but that is not what this is. This is a blog that spans more than just your design.

I don’t think you have to change your domain name, as much as you just need to separate this blog from your design & music. I think coudal.com does this nicely. It’s a blog FIRST, and then they do a nice job of inserting their own self promotions here and there…

Just an idea.

I don’t like the text justification. Because there’s no native hyphenation on the Internet, it comes across as stretched out, invariably spaced out paragraphs, making reading and skimming harder.

If you change one thing, make it this.

I always thought since 90% of the posts on the blog are either related to design or music you could break the layout into two large columns. One for music orientated posts and one for design.

I can only think of one thing to change which has probably been mentioned previously: put the author at the bottom of the posts, or better yet on the long ones, both the top and bottom. I simply find myself checking who authored a post more than once most of the time — not anything brutal, but a minute distraction.

To reiterate what some others have said:

– “Random Work” is terrible. Those should be clickable to larger images. I was trying to find the Obama poster the other day to show it to my wife and I finally gave up. “Enter Exhibit” is kind of counterintuitive too. To me, an “exhibit” kind of sounds like a one-time collection of work, rather than a constantly evolving portfolio.

– The multiple authors are confusing. I still think of it as the blog of the designer who makes the posters on the right, and I only occasionally notice that other people post when Jakob says something like “I am not a designer” and I have to scratch my head in confusion for a minute.

– Those embedded mp3s are WAY LOUD on my system for some reason, relative to everything else, and there is no volume controller on the mp3 player which is a little annoying. Not a major issue, but a minor touch that could improve usability.

I’ve been coming to your site(s) for at least 3 years now and I just clicked the “enter exhibit” link for the first time. I didn’t know what it was until I read the first comment here. I just figured you got rid of your old portfolio site. I’ve been trying to find it ever since you switched to this blog. I guess this just verifies that I’m not really very smart. Ha! Love both sites and I’m sure you’ll do an awesome job on the redesign! You are one of my all time favorite designers.

i have to say i get nothing out of the other authors. i subscribe because this is scott’s blog, not jakub or anyone else. i skip over those entries. give us what you think, what music you like, what art catches your eye. that’s why we come here, not for some friends of yours who you got to keep the blog fresh. i’d take one post from you a week over daily posts from your buddies.

Scott, I don’t know about everyone else, but I was really hoping your website would provide me with a sammich. I was disappointed when this sammich was not delivered to me, but I could be convinced to continue checking for your work, but you’ll have to earn my trust back.

Concernded,
Mr. Mind

P.S. Thanks for continuing to stay interesting in an ever-over-saturated design blog market.

I have to disagree with Jason Lynes. I really enjoy everyone’s posts on the blog. In the past year or so that I’ve been coming here, I’ve yet to read a post that made me think “Man, these posts by Scott’s buddies really are bringing down what the blog could be.” Actually, I think it’s the exact opposite. Jakub’s posts are always nice to read. His posts have showed me so much great music that I feel I owe him something. At this point, I look forward to new posts, despite the author. I would imagine that anyone you let blog on here is of some importance to you or what you stand for, and with that, should be of some importance to us as readers and fans of your work.

I do think it would be nice to have some background info on the other authors. I think it would offer a little insight into the people behind the posts. Maybe nothing static; but just a post letting the community know who’s who. Just a thought.

With all that, I’d like to say that I love this blog. It’s one of the only blogs I frequent…. so don’t change it too much.

I think that one of the best features of the site is that the whole article is available on both the home page and in RSS format. Whatever redesigns there are keep that feature!

I agree with the corrections that you suggested in the comments, but i think you need to address your columns a little bit more. You should have your main content column, your news/category column, and then a portfolio column. currently they are a bit mixed up as the Enter Exhibit link is in the news column and winter sale is in the content column. The columns could then be labeled accordingly, ig… ISO50 Blog / News+Events / Personal Work.

Great site and I am excited to see what changes you make!

This is hands down my fav blog. Not only is the content high quality, but I think the current design stands out in a positive way. Basically I will only stress one point: Don’t streamline things too much. This is not a smooth corporate blog but is paramount in highlighting cool and quirky design – so I hope the redesign somehow keeps that in tune!

Looking forward to seeing the new robes!

the one thing that confuses me is the vertical-ness of the site. Maybe that’s just because I’m more used to horizontal, though. Also there is a slight lack of ‘clarity’, the way the background is seamless throughout the page and everything is divided with lines is slightly cluttered. The lines tend to blend in with the text and the pictures don’t stand out much. But all in all I like the general feel of the site. I use and rss feed but I prefer to look at the site, a white page bores me =P

i never had any problems with the way your blog is right now, so i only could imagine some smaller changes.
– normally i very much prefere positive(darker fontcolor on lighter background) fontcolor for readability but i’ve nevere had problems in this blog with it (i think the colors are in a good balance)

– i would switch the position of the “older posts” “newer posts” buttons(and the arrows in the buttons). i find it easier when they match the forward and backward buttons on a cd player.

– maybe you can have different colors for the different authors, so people can see more easily who wrote the post.

i’m looking forward to see your redesign.

hey man, you’re in my top ten blogs. i read via an rss reader, so no worries with the blog itself. i will say i don’t get into the music side of your posts, generally just skip those. but everything else is great. keep it up!!! and btw, i love your design aesthetic and bought your obama poster too.