Top 10 Best Designed Blogs

Running a blog that depends mostly on the community for the content, exposes us to a lot of creative blogs with great inspirational and educational content. There are however the few that stick out from the crowd and not because of their popularity, amount of traffic, or how great the content is alone, but also how beautifully designed they are.

Things I took in consideration when choosing "my" favorite Top 10 best designed blogs are:

First Impression

Within the first few seconds of visiting a blog you have already made up your mind if you will continue looking through the site or not. I am looking for clean, clutter free, and well balanced designs.

Ad Clutter

Don't get me wrong, I understand how hard all of us work to keep our blogs running, but there is no excuse for cluttering your blog with every possible ad out there. Choose your few money makers and get rid of the rest, your readers will thank you for it!

Easy to Navigate

There is nothing more frustrating than a blog that makes it so hard to navigate to the information you are looking for. There is a right way for a reader to get lost exploring your blog and a wrong way! The right way will guarantee returning visitors, the wrong way will not.

Attention to Detail

I love, love, love details in blog designs, something I was very conscious about while redesigning Feedgrids.com V2 (Coming very soon. Want to take the new design for a spin? Hit us up.)

I love easy to read typography, the right balance of white space and content, the little 1px white borders on a grayish textured background etc.

Overall Impact

This is an overall feeling of the blog itself, you know that feeling you get when you know you found the right house, or when you test drive the right car? Overall theme, colors, navigation, amount of ads etc.

So here are "my" top 10 best designed blogs:

(I would love to hear about your favorite blogs, sound off in the comments after you are done reading this entry!)

#1 Premium Pixels

A collection of free design resources including icons, patterns, textures, brushes and more. Free for personal and commercial use.

#2 Build Internet

Blog on web design, development, and business. Learn how to make the internet compelling.

#3 Web Design Fan

A web design blog with design tips, development, blogging and photoshop.

#4 A List Apart

A List Apart Magazine explores the design, development, and meaning of web content, with a special focus on web standards and best practices.

#5 Oculoid

Art and design inspiration.

#6 WeGraphics

Fresh News for the Design Community, Unique Tutorials, Great Inspiration, Special Offers, and Informative Articles.

#7 Spyre Studios

SpyreStudios is an web-design and development magazine.

#8 Echo Enduring

A web and graphic design blog.

#9 TutorialZine

Tutorialzine is the one place for high quality web development tutorials.

#10 Konigi

Knowledge management and competitive research community for user experience design on the web.

I would love to hear about your favorite blogs, sound off in the comments!