While working on the project this afternoon, I started looking at the user interfaces for various weblog tools. Sadly, I have come to the conclusion none of the user interfaces would have been what a reasonably intelligent user (meaning me, of course) would have designed. Typepad and Blogger would be about the best available. Both have a few small buttons to take care of standard things you’d want to do while entering a post to a blog - make text italicized or bold, insert an image or a link. But there is a standard in user interface design (and by standard I mean a good idea that I just thought of but I think everyone should use) called the mom standard - would my mom be able manage with this interface? With Typepad I don’t think she would because the buttons for making text bold, for example, just add the appropriate HTML code into the entry. I don’t mind this; I’m entering straight HTML now in MovableType, and I find entering the markup for my entry strangely reassuring. I have been told, however, that this is a bit of an anomaly and most people would rather not. So TypePad, for all its hope and glory, fails the mom test.
Blogger fares slightly better. I must admit that I am quite impressed with the reworking of the user interface since they were acquired by Google. Recently their posting editor was reworked so that it is a true WYSIWYG interface, although an HTML mode is available for fossils like me. Sadly, for the project, I want a blogging tool that is installed on my server so Blogger is not an option.
All the other blogging tools editor interfaces suck, to be blunt. Entries either require the blogger to enter in the raw HTML code (not mom compliant), use a wiki-ish editing code (also not mom compliant), or have so many options and buttons they would send my mother screaming from the room clawing her eyes out (hint to developers - more is not better).
If you know of any open source weblog tools with excellent user interfaces for editing, let me know. The alternative is that I just might have to build my own - there goes the rest of my summer holiday!
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