The LibrarianInBlack posted about Jakob Nielsen's Top Ten Weblog Design Mistakes of 2005 and it made me look at my own blog with a critical eye...gulp.

Ok let's see how many of the mistakes I am guilty of making:

• Mistake #2 -No Author Photo- Really this is something that is important in a blog? I think there are many professional blogs out there where the author doesn't have a picture. Does the fact that there is no photo of the author does that really less user friendly? I don't see anybody saying Jenny Levine, The Shifted Librarian has usability problems because she doesn't have her picture in about me.
• Mistake #4 -Links Don't Say Where They Go- Yep I am guilty of that at times, just take a look at my October 25 Web Mail post. However, I do try to make my links as descriptive a as possible so that you know where you are going. I find that I fall prey to this mistake when I am typing a narrative story rather than other posts.
• Mistake #5 -Classic Hits are Buried - Ok this I am working on. I realized through a monitoring service and through comments that certain posts get a lot more looks than others. I plan on placing links to them on the side in my next redesign.
• Mistake #6 -Calendar Only Navigation -I have been wanting to do some subject lists on my blog for quiet a while (after all I am a librarian, I like subject guides, its in my blood) but Bloglines does not currently offer an easy way to add subject navigation. From what I have heard WordPress does and I am working moving my blog to WordPress.
• Mistake #10 -Having a Domain Name Owned By Weblog Service -Yep guilty there too, but like LibrarianInBlack I don't think it is a usabilty issue. I think it is more of professional issue which is different.

Wow, if this was a pop quiz I would have failed. But I did learn some interesting things. I still disagree with Mistakes #2 and #10 as being specifically usability issues. But it is an interesting thing to look at and use to evaluate your blog.