Newbie. What I ended up with...

[R&R]

...it seemed to insist that I should create a blog

Yep, that has alot to do the with the chosen theme. Likely you used the default one...

I'm boring myself and this isn't a webdesign forum
Reason I brought it up is because I think your plugins are far more advanced and enjoyable than your page reflects...

I'm hardly an expert. But I can maybe add some common UX rules/mindset point in a thread. Those things apply to anything with an interface, but generally even more things. Maybe tulamide or someone would have fun discussing that topic. Most of that stuff is common sense but at different abstraction levels, and easily forgotten when in process of work. Much like design patterns, conventions and test-oriented stuff is thrown out the window during code development, because it adds a extra layers to the effort (maybe it's just me "projecting" now, being lazy? ) but usually pays off in the end...