Thoughts on one column designs
I’m a sucker for one column blog designs. It’s not only because the sidebar is dead (albeit somewhat resurrected), and I won’t get a ton of crappy widgets force-fed to me. No, I like the direct approach that most one column blog designs have. Straight to the point, that oh so important content I came there from.
Unless I arrived via a CSS gallery site. Then good content is just a bonus.
Unfortunately, it’s not all that common to see probloggers use one column designs. The reasons are pretty obvious.
- It’s hard to place ads in a one column design, no sidebar for your everyday 4-6 squares.
- It’s hard to pimp your services when you don’t have a sidebar to pimp it with.
- Your archive disappears! People won’t find my old posts! OMG!
I bet you can find more problems if you looked hard enough. Now, these things are problems, they really are. It’s hard to make money if you can’t push your services or display your ads in a good way.
So yes, one column designs are harder. They’re not impossible. You can put the footer to ingenious work, but it’s not the direct approach of the ever present sidebar.
What are your thoughts on one column designs? Pros and cons?
Related reading:
I think they are much like any other design: done well they can be a breath of fresh air and great to read; done badly, the opposite.
By Andrew on November 28, 2007 2:32 am
I think they are great from the reader’s POV. It is pretty darn difficult to read ANYTHING on the web when when there is a column of stuff running down one or both sides of the page. I personally don’t read any blogs outside my feed reader (Google Reader). I don’t ever have to see all that junk er stuff…
What are bloggers going to do when RSS readers really take off and the sidebars never even get seen?
By Brett on November 28, 2007 3:16 am
True enough, guys. And Brett, I’m guessing you’ll be getting partial feeds in your RSS reader. :(
By Thord Daniel Hedengren on November 28, 2007 3:33 am
There’s no reason a one-column design can’t work well if you invest enough thought into the footer for things like navigation and archives.
Certainly, without messy sidebars, there’s much more reason to focus on the content.
By Gerard McGarry on November 28, 2007 5:12 am
I share your love for single column design if done correctly. One thing to keep a careful eye on is the line length. Line lengths that are too long can be fatiguing and difficult to read.
I find that when sidebars are necessary it’s best to use a big gutter, like 30-50px. That gives a nice visual break between body’s of text. Combine that with a manageable line length and you’ve got a site that’s a joy to read!
By Travis Isaacs on November 28, 2007 6:44 am
These comments make me happy. Still, I believe (without any research backing it up though, just a general feeling) that the mainstream public dislikes one column themes. Am I right or wrong?
By Thord Daniel Hedengren on November 28, 2007 11:23 pm
>It’s hard to place ads in a one column design, no sidebar for your >everyday 4-6 squares.
cmon, is not that much difficult to bother a viewer, there are many ways to do that – to recall just a couple:
1) before to show a page with a timer
2) any x lines of text
>It’s hard to pimp your services when you don’t have a sidebar to >pimp it with.
well nobody block a designer to put on top or at the end of the page a link to your services list.
>Your archive disappears! People won’t find my old posts! OMG!
same as told before – just put a link to your archive summary. Let’s keep a little navigation to the user, will we? ;)
By astelix on November 28, 2007 11:45 pm
Putting ads before the content is a sure way to put the reader off, so I don’t think that’s a good solution at all.
And yes, you can have links in your footer for sure, but when will your reader see them? The first time, perhaps, when they scroll down and read up on old posts, but then they just read your last post and won’t be exposed to the footer. It’s possible to put them there of course, but they’re not getting the exposure as in the sidebar.
By Thord Daniel Hedengren on November 28, 2007 11:55 pm
>Putting ads before the content is a sure way to put the reader >off, so I don’t think that’s a good solution at all.
yes sir, 100% agreement also here but do not hurt much to put a couple of ads blocks well weighted in the middle of that long stream of text, I guess.
>And yes, you can have links in your footer for sure, but when will >your reader see them? The first time, perhaps, when they scroll >down and read up on old posts, but then they just read your last >post and won’t be exposed to the footer. It’s possible to put them >there of course, but they’re not getting the exposure as in the >sidebar.
I was talking about to put just a simple link archives to access one-column page where to select old issues. It’s just a click ahead – I don’t think is asking too much to the user. And is up to the designer to choose to put that archive link on top, on bottom or on both sides of a page.
By astelix on November 29, 2007 12:13 am
You could float them to the right in a post of course, but then you’d have to do it all the time (which I’m aware some bloggers do) and I’m no big fan of that solution since it doesn’t add for much flexibility. You can’t change all ads at once easily, without plugins and other ninja stuff.
True enough, if it’s just an archives link. But what if you want to profile your work, sell your blogging skills, and show off other things that you might want to get from your blog.
I hate to say it, but one column themes are harder if you want to pimp yourself.
By Thord Daniel Hedengren on November 29, 2007 12:25 am
well, I just tried dude. Nonetheless I think that one-column page is a good idea because this kind of layout is a solid foundation to stay stick to avoid bloating web pages and, last but not least, to be nomad-device compliant (web-enabled-with-small-screen portable devices). Certainly, as you pointed out, do not fits all sizes but is a good idea to work on it.
By astelix on November 29, 2007 12:32 am
And I totally agree! :) I wish there were more one column designs out there, it is absolutely possible – it’s just harder.
By Thord Daniel Hedengren on November 29, 2007 12:35 am
I noted last year one site that used 1-Column that actually worked .. http://www.hart-empire.com/2006/10/designs-out-there-that-i-like-008/ .. but if you look at that site now http://www.thecoolhunter.net/design/ it still looks like a 1-column site, even though it’s really 3 columns. That could be a solution to sites like your Orn site Thord – with ads on the whitespace (or rather beige space) on the sides of the 1-column
By HART (1-800-HART) on November 29, 2007 12:39 am
It’s not so much the sidebar (or lack of it) that bothers me – usually I just tune them out.
What does bother me is this insatiable desire that bloggers have to keep full length articles on the main page, thus making it absolutely huge. What’s more, most of the time I will have read these articles, so they’re just taking up valuable screen real estate.
I say full-length your last article, then provide the other posts as titles, no more than ten.
Perhaps this is also a limitation of WordPress. :)
By Ben on November 29, 2007 1:43 am
Not really, just two loops, one for the latest post an one for the recent post titles.
By milo on November 29, 2007 2:15 pm
Hart, it could, although I’m not so fond of that particular design. As for OrnTales.com, it does what it’s supposed to with one column. I don’t need to push more on it than I do. :)
By Thord Daniel Hedengren on November 29, 2007 11:15 pm