Fire Studios

In this sitdown of "FS Interviews:" we pull up a chair with reknowned blogger and designer Michael Martin of Pro Blog Design. We discuss what makes blogs work, his favorite project he's ever worked on, most visited sites, and the creative process behind designing a kickass website.

Hi Michael, thanks for taking the time to answers my questions. Could you please provide a summary to the readers of who you are and what you do?

No problem, glad to be asked! I run a WordPress/web design advice blog, Pro Blog Design, which is just about to hit the 10,000 subscriber mark, and I also lead a web design/development team on the same site where we've done work for a fair few big sites, including Technorati Top 100 blog; Slashfilm.

Your site, Pro Blog Design, has a fair following under its belt. What do you believe it is that draws viewers in to your blog? Content? Design? Personality? Reader Communication?

It's a combination of everything. If the design sucks, their first impressions will suck. If the content sucks, they won't be back. If it has no personality, they'll get bored. The trick is recognizing the parts that you're great at, and finding help with the others.

For me, the more and more work I've done on the web design business, the more I've fallen behind in keeping up with content for the site. The solution to that was to start hiring writers. That worked for me because of the profits from the web design business.

If your blog is young though and hiring people isn't an option just yet, I'd work on honing your writing skills, and perhaps making an investment in the design side of things (Because design payments are a one-off, whereas writers need to be hired regularly).

You not only blog, but also provide a design service. Which project have you worked on that you enjoyed the most and what was it about that project that separated it from the rest?

I would probably say it was American Majority that I've enjoyed working on the most. The main factor in enjoying a project really comes down to the people you work with. The team at Pro Blog Design is great so I always enjoy working with them, but the client themselves makes a massive difference.

I'm really glad to say that I've been fairly lucky with our clients so far, the vast majority are great people! When a client is fun, relaxed and really enthusiastic about their project, it's infectious and I can honestly say that the end product *always* turns out better. When you're enjoying your work, it just works better.

For anyone thinking of hiring a designer or any kind of freelancer for your site, that's the best advice I could give you. Be friendly and make them enjoy working with you. You can be guaranteed you're getting their best work then.

The thing about American Majority that makes me name it in particular was just some of the technical details of the work. It has a blog of course, but a store as well, newsletter, videos, Twitter search embedded, a "Find Your Legislator" search, and separate home pages and event lists for every single state. Even little touches like the image in the header changing on each page, or displaying one of the founding fathers as the default avatar for commenters with no gravatars (that was all the client's idea too! :) ) made it nicer. It was a complex website, but I couldn't be more proud of the result!

What are your favorite sites to visit everyday and why? How do you stay up-to-date on the latest design, development, and usability trends on the web?

Without a doubt, it's Twitter. I haven't used Digg or Stumbleupon in a while now, and my RSS reader is checked very rarely now. I just rely on Twitter instead.

The best thing about it is that it's selective. You don't get sent every single post a site makes, you just look for the ones people are retweeting. If they thought it was worth retweeting, it must be a good article. :)

Final Question: When you're designing and building a design, what's your creative process? Do you jump straight into Photoshop or do you sketch out some ideas on paper or do you begin with the HTML?

When I start a project, I begin by asking the client everything about their website. I look at their current site (if it exists) and their competitors, I talk to them about their goals for the new site, and about the styles they're interested in. That discussion usually results in a rough idea of where to start from.

If it's just a rough idea, I tend to sketch it out quickly (And messily, doesn't need to be neat!) just to make sure I don't forget it. But occasionally the initial layout is fairly clear so I just jump into Photoshop.

Once the sketches are done, it's all Photoshop work. We design the site completely in Photoshop (e.g. for a blog; start with the homepage and revise it until it's approved, then move on to a post page with comments, and a category page if it's necessary).

When that is all approved, we code it up and set it all up on a test site.

Do you have any parting words for the readers?

I suppose I'd share the one thing I've been learning more and more lately, the Nike slogan; "Just do it."

I always thought I was fairly productive, but it doesn't seem so at all now! The effect of simple changes like doing your most important task as the first thing each morning has a massive difference on the work you get done.

It's much easier said than done though!

Thanks again for interviewing me, I hope your readers find the answers interesting enough and if anyone has any questions or disagrees with anything, I'd love to talk about it in the comments!