In the numerous hours you've spent surfing the Internet, I'm sure you've come across countless online content with titles that start with numerals and go along the lines of these headings like "40 Most Inspiring...", "65 Incredible...", and "10 Most Popular...". Content with titles such as these are called – List Articles and regardless of the content being design related or not, list articles are fast becoming a highly popular trend in the blogging sphere.

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Popular social media sites like Delicious, Digg, StumbleUpon or Twitter also play a huge role in circulating list articles among web savvy individuals like you. This begs the question, what is it about list articles that allows it to thrive in social media sites? Today we take a closer look at some of the reasons behind the success of this fast-growing trend.

Why are List Articles so Popular?

List articles are usually defined as a round-up, mash-up or a consolidated article. The nature of these types of articles does not allow an in depth discussion about the subject matter. Instead, they give an overall view of the topic by showcasing big, clear and attractive visuals for the reader to enjoy.

Fast and Easy is a Plus

The popularity of products like instant noodles, fast food outlets and 3-in-1 shampoo says a lot about the nature of people today. Convenience is of utmost importance and to be able to get something fast and easy is a plus. This stems from the fact that our society is becoming more impatient and they want to be able to obtain information and answers quickly and effortlessly.

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Think of list articles as a mini one-stop-centre, where inspiration and creative ideas are stocked. List articles ensure that you get all the information you need, all in one link, without having to open multiple tabs. With a good list article, all the work is done for you. As such, list articles have become popular with readers today. In time, with the rise in the supply and demand of list articles, blogs that ride the popularity wave of this trend will continue to gain followers and exposure.

Make them Bite Size

Statistics have shown that people read slower online. Although many online articles are intriguing, our eyes tire more easily when reading from a monitor as compared to reading from a hardcopy source like books, magazines or newspapers. As such when consolidating information in a list article, keeping it bite sized helps the reader absorb the information more easily and quickly.

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The use of pretty images and concise text is one of the main characteristics of the list article. This saves the reader's time and energy as they would not have to surf through hundreds of web pages to obtain information.

Easy Access List

Search engine results do not remain the same even if you input the exact same key words because there are always changes and newer web pages available. As such links obtained from a previous search may not be listed in the new search results.

List articles function like a mini library in which links and information is grouped accordingly by subject matter. Users now only need to bookmark one list article link to be able to gain access to all the relevant websites regarding the topic of interest.

Inspiration Provider

List articles also help those in need of inspiration and creativity as they consolidate large amounts of information and images of any given subject in one list. This means that you do not have to go through the time-consuming and tedious work of sifting through galleries and articles to figure out what the latest trend is.

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If you are having problems designing your next portfolio, browsing through some list articles may help you get a little inspiration, and clear you of your Designer’s Block.

Increased Exposure

The World Wide Web is massive. There are so many websites and domains in existence now that, sadly, some of them never see the light of day and remain unknown to the masses. This could be due to many reasons, like the country’s domain, complication of the Search Engine Optimization, language barrier etcetera. However, list articles reduce the likelihood of that and provide readers with a higher chance of exposure to more sites available on the web.

15 Design and Development List Powerhouses

There are many prominent blogs in existence today. Some focus their content on providing users with list articles on various topics. Others include more sophisticated and in-depth articles like tutorials, case studies and research based content. We have put together 15 of the top design and development blogs containing some of the best list articles in circulation on the web.

HongKiat
The Grandmaster of list article blogs, many of their article titles start with a number, more so that most other blogs.

InstantShift
iShift, founded by DKumar M and Daniel Adams, constantly provides great list articles almost on a daily basis.

Smashing Magazine
Smashing Magazine strikes a balance between the use of list articles and other types of articles on their website. The design and development content is useful and intriguing for those in the community.

1stwebdesigner
1stwebdesigner is a design blog dedicated to bloggers, freelancers, web-developers and designers. The blog has many list articles written by creator Dainis Graveris.

Abduzeedo
The king of design list articles, Abduzeedo has a vast collection of inspiration visuals and useful tutorials.

Webdesigner Depot
Webdesigner Depot has published a wide range of articles in various forms related to web and graphic design.

InspiredMag
Most of the articles that are popular among readers are InspiredMag’s list articles and the topics vary from iPhones to WordPress.

DesignM.ag
A community-based website for web designers and developers, DesignM.ag provides list articles as well as other great articles for their readers.

Noupe
Despite being run under a new company, Smashing Media GmbH, Noupe has kept up the standard and continued to produce some of the most inspirational list articles around.

Speckyboy
Speckyboy Design Magazine publish articles on topics regarding CSS, Firefox, Photography and WordPress.

Naldz Graphics
Managed by Ronald Bien, Naldz Graphics is a design blog that publishes high quality lists of tutorials, freebies and other useful resources for the design community.

Tripwire Magazine
Tripwire Magazine is a web blog that provides useful inspirational lists and tutorials for both web designers and web developers.

Six Revisions
Six Revisions is a website that publishes practical and useful articles for designers and web developers. Although it has slowly shifted its focus more towards teaching and tutorial based articles, they still publish some great list articles occasionally.

Smashing Apps
Smashing Apps never fails to inspire their readers with great list articles of free and useful online resources for designers and developers alike.

Web Design Ledger
A platform for sharing web design related knowledge and resources, Web Design Ledger publish list articles on various topics like design inspirational tips and tutorial and everything in between.

15 Flourishing Design and Development Blogs

Now we’d like to share with you 15 relatively new design and development blogs with superb list articles as well as other comprehensive content. These up and coming blogs definitely deserve our attention so do check them out!

10Steps.SG
Founded by Johnson Koh, 10Steps.SG focuses on providing great list articles on Photoshop tutorials for the community.

Design Informer
Less than a few months old, Design Informer, created by Jad Limacaco has a great mix of list articles and intellectual discussion articles. This blog is definitely worth taking a look at and putting it on your watch list.

Aext.net
Aext.net is a comprehensive site with articles mainly focused on programming and development topics perfect for developers to get additional inspiration.

Little Box Of Ideas
Showcasing gorgeous design inspirational works, Little Box of Ideas is barely 1 year old started by Sneh.

GeekSucks
Providing a wide variety of topics, GeekSucks has content that is sure to inspire and entertain you at the same time.

PV.M Garage
PV.M Garage’s list articles are interesting and of good standard, providing to be a useful tool for web designers and developers.

Designrfix
Designrfix has a huge library of tutorials as well as list articles of all of the hot topics in the design world although it is barely a year old.

Pelfusion
Pelfusion is quickly making a name for itself as a design and development blog with great list articles and content despite being in this field for less than a year.

Design Ussion
An up and coming blog, Design Ussion’s focus is on providing good list articles on design.

Web Design Booth
Created as a blog to discuss about resources for web developers and designers, creator Dicky ensures that Web Design Booth provides good content and maintains its popularity.

Design feedr
A relatively new graphic design blog, Design feedr concentrates on providing list articles on Photoshop and illustrations.

The Pro Designer
Also a graphic blog, The Pro Designer provides list articles with professional designers and web developers in mind.

Web Designer Help
Web Designer Help has a fantastic range of list articles that is both inspiring and helpful to designers and developers alike.

The Design Mag
The Design Mag offers many inspirational and useful list articles for web and graphic designers.

Dzinepress
Dzinepress is a web designing and development blog that has constantly provided fantastic list articles focused on areas such as web design, digital art, print media, tutorials and graphic design.

Interesting Read

• Sparing a Thought for ‘Readers’ in the Design Community: An article that explains why modern readers may be more receptive to list articles.
• Smashing Magazine killed the community(Or maybe it was me): An article by Drawar reviewing the effect of list articles to the design community.
• Tips on Writing Good List Articles: A guide on how to write good list articles.
• 3 Reasons List Posts Rock: James Costa talked about why list articles rock.

List Articles: Not a Hit with Everyone

Although there are a great many people who like list articles, there are some who detest them. List articles are seen by some as something with no value, because it is easy to consolidate resources and have it compiled into a list; a task that can be done by anyone. They feel that a list is only credible if there are statistics to prove its worth and it is determined by a group of people, instead of just the opinion of a single writer.

There are also some concerns that list articles inhibit the development and growth of the design community, as the need and interest in constructive discussion and creative brain storming are being neglected.

Will the List Trend Prevail?

There are new list articles published every one or two days and they can be very easily outdated as there is constantly new content published on the World Wide Web. However, even with this huge influx of content on the web, as long as list articles continue to be updated and become even more comprehensive than current list articles, the trend is not likely to die down anytime soon.

Although list articles have their benefits for today’s fast paced society, there should be a balance. It is important to remember that variety and moderation allows the web to remain fresh and keeps things interesting. We still need a healthy influx of intriguing and intellectual content that is not summarised or in the form of a list. Lists articles also run the risk of reducing healthy thought-provoking discussions and content.

However, we would love to hear your thoughts regarding this trend that’s taking the World Wide Web by storm. Do you love or hate this phenomenal development? If you know of any unknown blogs that produce good list articles regularly, feel free to share them with us as well.