Comments on: Thoughts on one column designs

By: Thord Daniel Hedengren

Thord Daniel Hedengren — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 09:15:27 +0000

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: milo

milo — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 00:15:49 +0000

Not really, just two loops, one for the latest post an one for the recent post titles.

By: Ben

Ben — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 11:43:22 +0000

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: HART (1-800-HART)

HART (1-800-HART) — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 10:39:35 +0000

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: Thord Daniel Hedengren

Thord Daniel Hedengren — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 10:35:14 +0000

And I totally agree! :) I wish there were more one column designs out there, it is absolutely possible – it’s just harder.

By: astelix

astelix — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 10:32:14 +0000

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: Thord Daniel Hedengren

Thord Daniel Hedengren — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 10:25:37 +0000

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: astelix

astelix — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 10:13:29 +0000

>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: Thord Daniel Hedengren

Thord Daniel Hedengren — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 09:55:45 +0000

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: astelix

astelix — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 09:45:21 +0000

>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? ;)