Lists have become popular among weblog authors because they often catch attention on social network site. Delicious’ popular bookmarks usually contains several lists like 100 Essential Web Tools for Any Side Business or 14 Modern Teapots and Kettle Designs and push an awful lot of traffic to these sites. As authors seem to focus on traffic from social network sites rather than their content, lists often lose their usability. Consequently, I listed five thoughts on the current state of lists in the bloggersphere (what an irony!).

1. The 100 Un-Grouped Something Somehow-Related List

   The author lists one hundred items to receive a high ranking on social network sites. The average readers forgets anything older than thirty seconds (Quality! Not Quantity!)

2. The 100 Grouped Something Somehow-Related List

   The author lists one hundred items from different categories. As the author fails to provide an overview of all categories, the author is required to do a scroll-wheel-spinning-marathon to find categories of interest. Split. Please. (Readers! Not Social Network Sites!).

3. The 25-50 Something But Actually Same Things List

   The author compares similar items. Instead of providing an overview of the leading items, he lists every possible solution although many of them are actually not worth mentioning Survival of the Fittest!).

4. The 25 – 50 Something Useful but too Lazy List

   The author wishes to compare similar items, yet fails to mention anything else than title and link. This forces the reader to compare each item on their own and therefore  requires time (Help your readers!).

5. The 50 Must-Have Essential You-Die-Without Something List

   The term oxymoron refers to a combination of two normally contradictory terms and any number greater than ten and words like essential or Must-Have nail this. According to 40 Must Have Cheat Sheets for effective Web Designers, I should decorate my wall with five cheat sheets on colour codes. Seriously? Plus, which freakin’ editor does not include a colour palette? (Choose words and items wisely )

In summary, keep lists short, distinct and high quality. Lists are suppose to provide an easy overview of rather complex information and the desire traffic from social network sites is misleading. Still, I ♥ Lists!

Further Reading

You’ll find further information on usability on lists on the following websites:

• 7 Things You Need to Know About
  Writing Lists That Work from Muhammad Saleem (CopyBlogger)
• 7 Reasons Why List Posts Will Always Work from Brian Clark (CopyBlogger)
• 7 is the new 10 from Russ (Google Cache Blog)
• 8 Reasons Why Lists are Good for Getting Traffic to your Blog from Darren Rowse (Problogger)
• Write a List Post from Darren Rowse (ProBlogger)
• Weblog Usability: The Top Ten Design Mistakes from Jakob Nielsen (Use It)