7 Reasons Why Bulleted Lists Make Great Design Blog Articles

• Tweet
• 
  

  
  

• 
  Buffer
  

• Tweet
• 
  

  
  

• 
  Buffer
  

The world of design blogs is amok with numbered, unordered lists of items relevant to a given topic – “15 Ways to Improve as a Designer” or “27 Firefox Plugins You Need to Have Installed.” Posts like this are, frankly, a dime a dozen and all too common if you travel in the design-related blogosphere. RSS readers are clogged with 15s, 7s, 25s and 31s. I even saw a post once that listed 70+ Ways to Do something or other.

Why are these posts so common? There are a number of reasons why content like this works great on your design blog. I’ll cover a few here on ThisIsInspired.

NOTE: Please read this article with a sardonic, tongue-in-cheek frame of mind.

1. Itemized Lists are Easy to Write

Lists relevant to a certain topic are a breeze to write, simply because the writer need only be able to list one or two sentences about the topic itself; Very little knowledge is required to write a bulleted list for your blog.

2. You Can Write Bulleted Lists Much Faster Than Original Content

If you can count to five on one hand, you can write a list of things for your blog. Don’t worry about creativity, throw caution to the wind (well, honestly, there is no caution involved when you write a list).

3. There Is Very Little (or none whatsoever) Original Content Involved

Forget using your brain – 99.9% of all bulleted lists are culled from the depths of other bulleted lists. This means that even if you are venturing into unfamiliar territory you can still write a list for your blog. It’s as easy as browsing the internet. Dig through your favourite blogs and pick one from and here, and another from there.

4. They ‘Scattergun’ the Topic in Question But Teach Little to Nothing

By covering so many points all at once it doesn’t matter if you write no actual instruction to accompany them. Readers love to equate more topics with more completeness. Therefore, though the post may be short it hits a whole range of talking points and the reader’s mind fills in the blanks.

5. They’re Called “Unordered Lists” for a Reason

To call it ‘order’ would imply there is forethought. With Bulleted lists it doesn’t matter what order you find them or write them in. There is no actual structure to the list, because it’s an unordered list so to try and put it in order is a waste of time.

6. You Don’t Have to Think About It

Writing original content takes time, thought, and planning. Even if you’re a wizard at making an outline and fleshing out a topic writing an original, relevant article for your blog is time consuming. Articles don’t come about by chance, and blogs like A List Apart or even Mezzoblue plan weeks in advance and their writers take great care in choosing the right wording and structure. You can, quite literally, have a bullet list ready in ten or twenty minutes.

7. You Don’t Need to Have Any Knowledge of the Topic

Anyone can write an list. Even children love to list their favourite toys, favourite candy, favourite colours, etc. Foreknowledge and skill is not required to write a list. Children have a reason they pick a friend or a toy – but a bulleted list doesn’t need any reason other than a few keywords that relate it to a topic.

Tongue In Cheek

I’m writing this post partly to make a statement and partly to have some fun. To say I haven’t learned anything from bulleted lists would be a great misstatement – however, it seems there is a growing trend toward clogging the pipes of design websites — websites that purport to inspire and teach — with simple posts like bulleted lists, that, honestly, can be written by just about anyone. Writing on the web has become for many publications a lost art. Increasingly I notice writers don’t use proper grammar and appear at times to even have their spell checker turned off. Publishing lists like this is filling your publication with what they call fluff pieces. Fluff pieces are mostly air, with little substance. Itemized lists have their place, but when used in conjunction with bad grammar and typos it can really degrade an otherwise professional image the blog may have.

Just because it’s on the internet doesn’t mean that it’s easy, or instant.

Now, I draw a line between those lists that share useful tips and those that simply rehash what has already been hashed several times. Some authors write a simple list but take the time to accurately and thoughtfully describe each item, explaining why it was listed and how it can be beneficial. For example, I’ve found useful information in lists of Photoshop tips and ways to streamline workflow but don’t even read the ever-popular “12 Apps Every Designer Should Have” or “40 Firefox Plugins You Need Right Now” (there was a big rush of these a month or so ago).

I’d like to make a separation of those blogs whose purpose is to post short, topically relevant posts purely intended to inspire.

Inspiration is intangible — it can’t be numbered, bulleted or confined.

I subscribe to several blogs that mostly just publish photos or pictures of creative interest. These are useful in and of themselves because they make no promises – they inspire. And most of all, their content is for the most part original or at least unique.

There is a difference, also, in a short piece about a given designer’s workspace or computer setup – or even just a quick “5 Questions For So-&-So.” Pieces like this get readers involved and present unique perspectives about design and our fellow designers. We can learn from and be inspired by posts like this, even if they are short.

It’s hard to find inspiration in a cold, unordered bullet list.