Design blogging ain’t what it used to be
I read a lot fewer design blogs than I used to, and one of the big reasons — even bigger than lack of time — is because there’s a lot less good content out there that needs to be kept up with. Designers just aren’t blogging like they used to.
Why? My guesses are 1) social networks like Twitter and Facebook and 2) web design has stalled and it’s just not as much fun to write about as it was 3-4 years ago (there’s also probably a 3) of blogging in general isn’t as close knit or rewarding as it was a few years ago, which I’m sure is another big reason Twitter has taken off).
To test this theory I came up with 10 design bloggers who’ve been blogging since 2004 — when web standards adoption really took off and everyone was writing about it, sharing tips, tricks and their latest work. I wanted to compare the number of blog posts they’d written up to this point in 2004 to the number of blog posts they’ve written so far this year.
I know this isn’t a scientific study or anything, but here’s my quick count:
- Andy Budd, 2004: 80, 2008: 16
- Dan Rubin, 2004: 24, 2008: 3
- Eric Meyer, 2004: 89, 2008: 33
- Jason Santa Maria, 2004: 30, 2008: 6
- Keith Robinson, 2004: 137, 2008: 8
- Mezzoblue, 2004: 67, 2008: 8
- Molly, 2004: 71, 2008: 42
- Simplebits, 2004: 56, 2008: 14
- Stopdesign, 2004: 30, 2008: 4
- Veerle’s blog, 2004: 113, 2008: 28
So, on average these still popular design bloggers have written about 75% less this year than they did in 2004. I guess it speaks again to just how interesting web design’s gotten these last few years.
Tags: blogging, dead, design, twitter