thank you for the post
Before i get started, this is going to be just my vision, so if you agree or disagree join in for discussion. When i say design i'll be thinking of theme structure-organization so not the graphics design and current trends (which are handwriting and drowning, glossy is out and grungy is also soon to be out).
From the version one of WordPress (blogging itself, will refer to it as WordPress) you'll have to agree that nothing much is changed, no intention to change a purpose of it, showing pots and writing stays the primary goal of course. So all the themes go like this, some posts, categories, latest stuff (comments, tags etc..) right oriented sidebar... Ok, now let's think of the list of things what a usual theme should have, same as above posts, list categories, list archives, list comments, blogroll a place to advertise, subscribe.
Times are changing, as the design, but the structure stayed the same (you might show featured post, put your latest posts in like a grid or something no difference...) and now we have more and more magazine style websites offering lot's of content-news, daily updated with teams of writers so original structure doesn't work anymore, for example let's say you have 2-3 new posts a day in different categories with different authors. I hope you can see the problem here.
The solution is listing categories with recent and popular stuff, and highlighting the latest in every category (see images). So how does the structure look? Since lot's of content requires many categories and sub categories menu will be category oriented. You have to show latest post/s (in global, no specific category) and you have to list categories (and subcategories) with latest posts from each category featuring the one on the top (ordered by latest modified - recently commented etc...) that's the original idea. Standard sidebar on home page is out, as well as archives listing inside pages (archives page itself is required of course) so we're focused on content and everything else should be clever designed into some tabs or something to save space. Also very important part is allowing people to subscribe to specific category also buy listing categories.
I hope you get the idea. The first theme with this kind of structure is Gemini from Theme Galaxy (see the screenshots above)
Update: This would be reply on Johns question.
Yes this can be used for regular (personal) blogs, maybe even better than for magazines. For example let's say you have 50+ articles in 6 categories, and right now you can show less than 10 right, just on home page, so let's say that you create a grid 3x2 and put those 6 categories in it with latest updated posts titles (and excerpts if you want, with thumbnails etc..) so now you'll be showing 30+ articles right. Why? B/c you are writing that stuff so people would read it and your goal is to promote it the best you can, how often people open page 10 from your archive? 
Have some feedback? Leave a commentthank you for the post
man thank you
thank you very good
This is some really useful information and I will defiantly keep this in mind the next time I come to re-design by blog. Thanks for sharing.
While I can definitely see what you are saying in regards to the change in blog design and inner workings (tags vs. categories vs. issues… and so on), the Gemini theme (while interesting) reminded me of the kind of layout that a magazine would utilize.
Now… assuming that the general public would go from online blogs with simple layouts to an online magazine-type layout would depend upon a lot of things. First, it would depend on whether or not they had the readership to follow the different layout and also, the time to devote to creating different categories and such.
In short, the bigger more popular blogs would more than likely follow this trend…. the rest of the bloggers… probably not.
thank you
Great thoughts Ben, thanks for the feedback.
My thoughts on tags vs categories shape out a bit like this…
Tags and categories are not relational. That is to say that categories do not “have” tags and tags do not “have” categories. They are independent of each other, even though they serve a similar use.
Categories are broad, top level categorization. Articles specifically about topics will go into appropriate categories. I think of categories as buckets that contain posts.
Tags on the other hand are more micro level, they are a way of finding and categorizing posts and content that may contain a topic but are not specifically about a topic.
It is categorizing pieces of a post or content, but not all of the content itself.
This post for example could be tagged “newspaper themes” because it discusses them, but it wouldn’t be categorized as “newspaper themes” because it is not about them.
I love this sort of thing. Not sure why, but nomenclature / taxonomy / ontology … the stuff fascinates me. “Distinctions without differences” as a source of confusion. (I keep bugging WP folk with “Why is a tag not a category? How are they different? How do they relate?”
Right now I’m working at the highest level … subject / topic / issue / category … and what I’m finding is that most of this is actually pretty clear i.e. the user very often knows that s/he means by the term they’re using … but there’s just enough confusion and confound to make things blur.
As a test I’ve set up WPMU and will try to work a system so that any news story can be directed to the appropriate blog will minimum fuzziness.
Oh, hey, a memory just popped up: in the library I happened onto a book about classification … you know, Dewey Decimal contra Library of Congress … fascinating the way there are island of clear certainty surrounded by areas of real blur. Gnoosphere as fractal? 
Hey, is this Dejan or the new owner?
Yeah, i really agree with this idea. This could be happen in the near future. Nice post.
I agree 110% with the idea of showing more posts on the home page. I am actually in the middle of doing the same with the categories on my Kick2Kick.net website (still in development).
I however also have the separate rss links for categories and while it sounds good, i doubt it will take off.
I really like the idea of subscribing to individual categories. I guess it could be confusing too, if someone is not familiar with RSS to begin with. It depends on the audience, and how well you explain your features (RSS included).
Nice post!
Very nice idea indeed. Definitely something to think about next time you redesign a blog. I’ll definitely keep it in the back of my mind.
not sure if i can use this for personal blog…
I like just listing latest post on my home page
very interesting vision, didn’t see sites like that
on December 8, 2009
if you have a blog with multible topics it’s important that people can subscribe to specific categories