I am not suggesting that the design community considers writing unimportant. However, I have often experienced it treated as something else. I consider the short list of well-written design blogs to be proof of that. Yes, they exist, but they are the minority. As long as writing is treated as something else by designers, there will be a disconnect between the aesthetics of the visual and the textual. I am suggesting that there needs to be a shift towards considering writing as a required skill of designers. Writing is design. There is no separation.

Designers devote endless hours to make their solutions more elegant. They understand the importance of detail. Clarity and simplicity are cherished. The same is often not said about their craftsmanship of words. Dieter Ram published the 10 principles of design which have served as a guide to some and a set of commandments for others. While I have no right to act as an example to follow, I can propose ways to look at writing so that it is integrated into how one thinks about design. Below are 10 principles of good writing, derived from Dieter Ram’s list intended to illustrate how writing and design are often one in the same.

1. Good writing is reader-focused

The style of writing, the content provided and its format of delivery should be executed for the benefit of its readers. Writing that is published to fit a schedule, prop up traffic or unproductively rant wastes readers’ time.

2. Good writing is trustworthy

Readers need to trust that what they read is honest, genuine and fair. Writing that lacks any of those attributes erodes credibility and lead readers towards poor decisions.

3. Good writing makes its subject useful

Writing will have a limited impact if the reader does not understand how the subject relates to them or how they can move forward. Informing is prerequisite, empowering is ideal.

4. Good writing is unobtrusive

Writing does not need to be verbose to be smart. If a concept can be accurately communicated with simple words, use them.

5. Good writing is focused

A good piece of writing clearly articulates the subject it is covering. The end. Tangents dilute and create confusion.

6. Good writing provides novel information and perspectives

Writing should have something new and useful to say. Piling on a subject with nothing new to share helps no one. Better to direct readers to a well-written piece than duplicate it.

7. Good writing is aesthetically pleasing

The rhythm and composition of words can and should be aesthetic. The meaning of words should carry as much beauty as their visual representation. Well executed typography without well executed writing is missing the point.

8. Good writing is well-crafted

Typos and grammatical errors are unacceptable. Writers should strive for a technically flawless reading experience.

9. Good writing is as little writing as possible

Every word written should count. Any paragraph, sentence or word that lacks significance wastes the writer’s and the readers’ time.

10. Good writing is long-lasting

Our subject matter and language may be impacted by current trends, but our ideas should not have a short expiration date.

Communicating ideas has been and continues to be a primary goal of design. Considerable effort is spent by designers to convey complex emotions, processes and concepts through visual abstractions. These endeavors have merit and provide results. However, sometimes a simple, well-written sentence may prove more effective.

It Depends on the Goal of the Blog

If the goal of your blog is to market your expertise on a particular subject matter, then, by all means, listen to Mr. Nielsen. However, if your goal is to engage an audience around a particular topic (in order to increase sales), long-winded articles may not be the best format. Creating an audience/community around a business can be a very successful method for driving sale and keeping a close watch on a segment of your consumers. Consistent, and frequent updates are one way to ensure that people will continue to read your content – giving your business and product(s) more exposure.

It Depends on the Audience

Certain types of business lend itself to longer, more articulate articles – others do not. For instance, if I have a skateboarding business and decide to start a blog, the last thing I am going to do is write in-depth writeups on certain subjects. For style-based businesses (music, clothing, etc.) much of the success is based on its cool factor, which should not necessarily be communicated through a 5000 word article. Also, is your audience even interested in reading a boat-load of content or would they rather see the product?

Listening to Gurus Can Be Ridiculously Boring

If part of your business is about exuding a personality, not just know-how, it would be wise to use the format that best exemplifies that personality. Many of my favorite writers use a short format very successfully. Short does not always mean shallow, it can just as easily mean efficient. Readers definitely want to consume content, but they do not want to be bogged-down in articles that are heavy for no reason. Many of the web guru articles that I read are merely skimming material as I am hesitant to commit 15 to 20 minutes to read a post – even if it interests me.

Less (Good) Writing Is Better Than More (Bad) Writing

As someone who is just beginning his first steps in the business world, I know it takes a lot of time. Writing in a blog can be a nice-to-have luxury for many small business owners. Nonetheless, publishing content in a blog can be absolutely invaluable for many business owners. Writing long articles is not an easy thing to do – the larger the article gets, the more that can go wrong. Nielsen states that “In-depth content provides more value in less time than numerous superficial postings”, but I have not had the same experience from my blogging. For myself, the publish time increases exponentially the longer the article gets – and I find myself having less and less time for devoted writing. If time is an issue, I would advise writing smaller, sharper articles rather than sloppy longer articles due to time constraints. Additionally, I much rather see people move towards shorter format posts than just quit altogether.

Good times.

If you Twitter, by all means, please head over to my profile and add me as a friend. I have been very resistant to the social networking scene as I feel many, if not most, lack substance. What I like about Twitter is the fact it is a tool that can be used however one desires – the social aspect is merely a feature. Due to this flexibility, I am going to give it a go.

Integrating some aspects of my Twittering to the blog should not take too long so they should be popping up in the next couple weeks… Along with the photoblog and the functionality updates to Some Random Dude… Yes, I know I bit off more than I can chew. Still, I think this could add a lot to the site, so I am looking forward to trying it out. Please let me know your thoughts and, by all means, Sign up for an account and add me as a friend so you can join in on the fun.

If life resumes to its normal pace, I will be back to my normal schedule of writing. Based off the last three weeks however, I am holding off judgment until I see proof…

Design Observer

The writing for this blog is amazingly poignant and intelligent. While most of the web is dumbing itself down with top-10 lists, Design Observer continues to publish well-written exhaustive articles on all aspects of design. It is well worth your time to subscribe and thoroughly read through the articles.

Monday By Noon

Easily, the best domain name I have come across – and that is saying a lot since I have quite the affinity towards my own. What other domain name do you know that lets you know when each article will be published? Seriously, the blog deserved to be on this list just for that. However, this blog is not just about a clever name – the content is very well thought out, each article is a great learning experience and the topics are always very important (in the realm of web design). I do not have much time to read many web design/dev blogs anymore, but I make sure to read Monday By Noon every week.

Steve Tucker

Keep an eye out for this guy, because he is definitely on the way up in the web community. Steve is another web design/dev blogger that brings great content on a continual basis. What is nice about his blog is that the personal tidbits of life are scattered through the collection of articles as well. Some may not appreciate such things, but I really enjoy the human experience being a topic in any blog – and Steve does it very well.

TreeHugger

I am a bit of a green-nut, if you visit this site even semi-regularly it becomes quite apparent. From my surfing, TreeHugger is the best environmental blog on the net, period. TreeHugger is one of the few blogs I frequent on a daily basis – not one day goes by without me visiting at least once. The topics are on the environment are very diverse and are always very insightful. I become a complete jabber-box when the environment becomes a topic of discussion – a lot of what I talk about in those conversations are things I learn from TreeHugger.

INHABITAT

This blog definitely lives in a niche, but it just ends up being my absolute favorite topic – design that aids the world community. From my view, INHABITAT should be in every designer’s RSS reader, regardless of the type they are. Graphic designers, web designers, industrial designers, architects and all other forms of designers can learn from the amazing work this blog promotes. The content on this site is a constant stream of inspiration on how design really can make a difference in the world.

SnarkMarket

Easily the king of wit in my list of blogs. I personally know one of the writers for this blog and brilliant is an understatement for him. The topics are extremely diverse and seemingly dug out of nowhere – I absolutely love it. If I am looking for a topic that I know I could not find anywhere else, I turn to SnarkMarket.

Paradyme Solutions

The folks at Paradyme are amazingly intelligent – I should know since I worked with them for a year. The blog covers the extremely uncrowded topic of information architecture an experience design. You can find a million sites showing you how to use CSS to round corners – not too many delve into subjects such as intelligent navigation structures and real-life usability studies. IA is far too overlooked, even by the web community. We all could use a little more reading in the subject and Paradyme’s blog is a great place to start.

The Blog Bit Me

My wife started this blog about 6 months ago. I keep telling my wife, that if she would write just a little more often, she would have a lot of readers. Sure, I may be a little biased, but if you read her blog as well, I think you will have the same opinion. I am always surprised by the subjects that come up and the perspective taken on them. She is definitely the writer in the couple and her domain name kicks quite a lot of ass as well…

Once again, I highly suggest spending some serious time with each of these blogs – regardless of your particular interests – I really think you will enjoy them. By all means, please drop a comment of your favorite blog(s), I would love to add to the list.