3 Columns Done Wrong
This layout consists of a main content area bordered on either side by narrow sidebar columns. Despite the inherent problems with this sort of layout, it caught on fast and remains a popular choice for blogs and online retail. It also became and remains quite popular as a default layout for many content management systems.
Design fundamentals reveal this layout to be deficient in several ways. Due either to a lack of designer or owner discrimination or understanding, or perhaps simply due to laziness, this layout remains common even today.
Sites Using Centered 3-Column Layout
* Apple Store
* Amazon.com
* Many content management systems’ default themes
So what are the flaws ? In order to better understand them, it is helpful to first examine some of the supposed benefits to the centered 3-column layout.
Supposed Pros
* Centers the content, “making it the focus”
* Results in a “pleasing” symmetrical design
* Allows for twice as much ancillary content and cross-promotion on the page at
any given horizontal level
* Mostly it just allows people who don’t understand design and who cannot craft a
good content hierarchy to have places to put all sorts of extra info on a page
But these supposed benefits are not often beneficial at all. The reasoning behind them is based on a certain ignorance of design and usability. When you take design fundamentals and the corresponding facts of human perception into account, the flaws appear.
Definite Cons
* Symmetry is usually detrimental to content hierarchy
* Symmetry diminishes viewer interest
* Having 2 sidebars, one on either side, defeats the purpose of sidebar content
* It requires that site visitors first learn (and perhaps relearn from page to
page) where to look for a particular sort of ancillary information or links
* Often results in far too much ancillary information on the page
* The particular sort of visual noise generated by the 2 bracketing sidebars
diminishes, rather than enhances, user/reader focus on the main content
Given these usually relevant and always compelling issues, it makes little sense in almost any case to use a centered 3-column layout for Web pages. It’s time to retire this deficient and problematic layout and reserve it solely for its best use: cases where design and usability are not important—or you don’t want to pay a designer to craft something that’s actually effective.
For Example:
For Example:
Here’s a simple, easier to use iteration of the Apple Store main page. Compare this with the current Apple Store.
Also, you might want to see how I chose to redux Amazon.com and mitigate the problematic centered 3-column layout.
How Deep is My Silo ?
When done well, Newspapers can represent some the best examples of information design. When your sole purpose is to present loads of textual/graphic information to be consumed in-full by everyone, you get good at designing for just that or you perish in the marketplace.
When newspapers and other print publications took their products to the Web, they were armed with what they thought was relevant design expertise. But this theretofore expertise turned to hubris when they failed to accurately recognize the constraints of this new medium. Their design and layout experience caused them to hold precious their deep columnar silo approach to sectional information presentation.
Examples of poor online main page (index) layout:
* Wall Street Journal
* L.A. Times
* NPR
While many publications have caught on to the differences between print and Web media, the results of that initial hubris survive even today with many publications taken online. It is common to find news or magazine website main pages laid out in narrow vertical columns for sectional or contextual organization. This convention is almost always problematic, as the following facts point out.
In Print
* High resolution—comparatively easy to read
* Pages are largely vertical in nature
* A person can see and visually take in a large area of content (on a gatefold or
newspaper spread) at one time, so many items or department references in a layout
are all visible at the same time
* Typically, the section/article index is not a primary area for content consumption
Seldom any need to scan many contextually different sections at one time in one
area
For online newspaper/magazine main pages..
* Low resolution—comparatively difficult to read
* The screen is largely horizontal in nature ( because of and necessitating
scrolling ).
* Much of the page content is hidden below or above the visible screen area
* Main page content usually comprises a vast index of content, broken up into
distinct and contextually different sections—but this index is a primary content
consumption area
When news main page sections are laid out in vertical columns of varying heights placed side-by-side it requires that a reader practice one of 2 irritating methods of content consumption:
1) scroll downward to scan a column’s or section’s content and then go back up to do the same with another column or section, or
2) scan horizontally across adjacent columns of differing contexts, then scroll down and repeat the process, etc…
The first option is tedious and requires that we scroll up and down a number of times in order to consume the page in a contextual manner. The second option requires that we must examine part of 2 or 3 or more different departments/contexts, then scroll down to get the rest of some of these sections while introducing new departments/contexts. This option involves contextual schizophrenia.
The best method is to acknowledge the horizontal nature of the medium ( especially with regard to information-rich indexes online ) and lay out your departments and contexts in a horizontal manner. Horizontal browsing of information is far more comfortable for people than is vertical browsing of information (when reading). This allows readers to consume the entirety of one or more departments’ offering(s) and then scroll down for a different sort of information. With this method scrolling can become basically a one-time affair and there is no contextual dissipation of information.
Examples of better online main page (index) layout:
* Times Online
* Time Magazine
Examples of excellent online main page (index) layout:
* MSNBC
* New York Post
Verbatim online mimicry of print media ignores vital differences in medium. New media is not new any longer and this sophomoric layout practice should be ended. So long as online newspapers and other publications continue to hold precious the idea of visual similarity to printed newspapers, they will fail to best serve their readers. Online publication designers should start being designers rather than legacy form production artists.
Conclusion
Every new medium or environment brings opportunities for missteps, and it is inevitable that initial efforts in these environments will utilize practices that are later found to be lacking. This is the case with centered 3-column layouts and vertically oriented columns in news index layouts.
With the examples of clear problems inherent with these (and other) layouts, it suggests that we designers should ever reexamine things we typically regard as standard practices. Making a regular practice of regarding any given medium or environment as a new frontier rather than one fully explored, it becomes easier to be a real designer and to actually do our job.
These examples are, like most of our design issues, contextual in nature. When we first pay attention to contextual matters, designing for any given medium or circumstance becomes easier and mistakes like these are easier to avoid. I sincerely hope that the problematic example websites cited in this article are fixed soon for the benefit of their users/readers/customers. But if they’re not, it certainly provides more opportunities for their competitors. Such is the nature of the marketplace.
Source : Killing Some Bad Layout Conventions
1. The user must know what the site is about in seconds: attention is one the most valuable currencies on the Internet. If a visitor can not figure what your site is about in a couple of seconds, he will probably just go somewhere else. Your site must communicate why I should spend my time there, and FAST!
2. Make the content scannable: this is the Internet, not a book, so forget large blocks of text. Probably I will be visiting your site while I work on other stuff so make sure that I can scan through the entire content. Bullet points, headers, subheaders, lists. Anything that will help the reader filter what he is looking for.
3. Do not use fancy fonts that are unreadable: sure there are some fonts that will give a sophisticated look to your website. But are they readable? If your main objective is to deliver a message and get the visitors reading your stuff, then you should make the process comfortable for them.
4. Do not use tiny fonts: the previous point applies here, you want to make sure that readers are comfortable reading your content. My Firefox does have a zooming feature, but if I need to use on your website it will probably be the last time I visit it.
5. Do not open new browser windows: I used to do that on my first websites. The logic was simple, if I open new browser windows for external links the user will never leave my site. WRONG! Let the user control where he wants the links to open. There is a reason why browsers have a huge “Back” button. Do not worry about sending the visitor to another website, he will get back if he wants to (even porn sites are starting to get conscious regarding this point lately…).
6. Do not resize the user’s browser windows: the user should be in control of his browser. If you resize it you will risk to mess things up on his side, and what is worse you might lose your credibility in front of him.
7. Do not require a registration unless it is necessary: lets put this straight, when I browse around the Internet I want to get information, not the other way around. Do not force me to register up and leave my email address and other details unless it is absolutely necessary (i.e. unless what you offer is so good that I will bear with the registration).
8. Never subscribe the visitor for something without his consent: do not automatically subscribe a visitor to newsletters when he registers up on your site. Sending unsolicited emails around is not the best way to make friends.
9. Do not overuse Flash: apart from increasing the load time of your website, excessive usage of Flash might also annoy the visitors. Use it only if you must offer features that are not supported by static pages.
10. Do not play music: on the early years of the Internet web developers always tried to successfully integrate music into websites. Guess what, they failed miserably. Do not use music, period.
11. If you MUST play an audio file let the user start it: some situations might require an audio file. You might need to deliver a speech to the user or your guided tour might have an audio component. That is fine. Just make sure that the user is in control, let him push the “Play” button as opposed to jamming the music on his face right after he enters the website.
12. Do not clutter your website with badges: first of all, badges of networks and communities make a site look very unprofessional. Even if we are talking about awards and recognition badges you should place them on the “About Us” page.
13. Do not use a homepage that just launches the “real” website: the smaller the number of steps required for the user to access your content, the better.
14. Make sure to include contact details: there is nothing worse than a website that has no contact details. This is not bad only for the visitors, but also for yourself. You might lose important feedback along the way.
15. Do not break the “Back” button: this is a very basic principle of usability. Do not break the “Back” button under any circumstance. Opening new browser windows will break it, for instance, and some Javascript links might also break them.
16. Do not use blinking text: unless your visitors are coming straight from 1996, that is.
17. Avoid complex URL structures: a simple, keyword-based URL structure will not only improve your search engine rankings, but it will also make it easier for the reader to identify the content of your pages before visiting them.
18. Use CSS over HTML tables: HTML tables were used to create page layouts. With the advent of CSS, however, there is no reason to stick to them. CSS is faster, more reliable and it offers much more features.
19. Make sure users can search the whole website: there is a reason why search engines revolutionized the Internet. You probably guessed it, because they make it very easy to find the information we are looking for. Do not neglect this on your site.
22. If you are linking to PDF files disclose it: ever clicked on a link only to see your browser freezing while Acrobat Reader launches to open that (unrequested) PDF file? That is pretty annoying so make sure to explicit links pointing to PDF files so that users can handle them properly.
23. Do not confuse the visitor with many versions: avoid confusing the visitor with too many versions of your website. What bandwidth do I prefer? 56Kbps? 128Kbps? Flash or HTML? Man, just give me the content!
24. Do not blend advertising inside the content: blending advertising like Adsense units inside your content might increase your click-through rate on the short term. Over the long run, however, this will reduce your readership base. An annoyed visitor is a lost visitor.
25. Use a simple navigation structure: sometimes less is more. This rule usually applies to people and choices. Make sure that your website has a single, clear navigation structure. The last thing you want is to confuse the reader regarding where he should go to find the information he is looking for.
26. Avoid “intros”: do not force the user to watch or read something before he can access to the real content. This is plain annoying, and he will stay only if what you have to offer is really unique.
27. Do not use FrontPage: this point extends to other cheap HTML editors. While they appear to make web design easier, the output will be a poorly crafted code, incompatible with different browsers and with several bugs.
28. Make sure your website is cross-browser compatible: not all browsers are created equal, and not all of them interpret CSS and other languages on the same way. Like it or not, you will need to make your website compatible with the most used browsers on the market, else you will lose readers over the long term.
29. Make sure to include anchor text on links: I confess I used to do that mistake until some time ago. It is easier to tell people to “click here”. But this is not efficient. Make sure to include a relevant anchor text on your links. It will ensure that the reader knows where he is going to if he clicks the link, and it will also create SEO benefits for the external site where the link is pointing.
30. Do not cloak links: apart from having a clear anchor text, the user must also be able to see where the link is pointing on the status bar of his browser. If you cloak your links (either because they are affiliate ones or due to other reasons) your site will lose credibility.
31. Make links visible: the visitor should be able to recognize what is clickable and what is not, easily. Make sure that your links have a contrasting color (the standard blue color is the optimal most of the times). Possibly also make them underlined.
32. Do not underline or color normal text: do not underline normal text unless absolutely necessary. Just as users need to recognize links easily, they should not get the idea that something is clickable when in reality it is not.
33. Make clicked links change color: this point is very important for the usability of your website. Clicked links that change color help the user to locate himself more easily around your site, making sure that he will not end up visiting the same pages unintentionally.
34. Do not use animated GIFs: unless you have advertising banners that require animation, avoid animated GIFs. They make a site look unprofessional and detract the attention from the content.
35. Make sure to use the ALT and TITLE attributes for images: apart from having SEO benefits the ALT and TITLE attributes for images will play an important role for blind users.
36. Do not use harsh colors: if the user is getting a headache after visiting your site for 10 consecutive minutes, you probably should pick a better color scheme. Design the color palette around your objectives (i.e. deliver a mood, let the user focus on the content, etc.).
37. Do not use pop ups: this point refers to pop ups of any kind. Even user requested pop ups are a bad idea given the increasing amount of pop blockers out there.
38. Avoid Javascript links: those links execute a small Javascript when the user clicks on them. Stay away from them since they often create problems for the user.
39. Include functional links on your footer: people are used to scrolling down to the footer of a website if they are not finding a specific information. At the very least you want to include a link to the Homepage and possibly a link to the “Contact Us” page.
40. Avoid long pages: guess what, if the user needs to scroll down forever in order to read your content he will probably just skip it altogether. If that is the case with your website make it shorter and improve the navigation structure.
41. No horizontal scrolling: while some vertical scrolling is tolerable, the same can not be said about horizontal scrolling. The most used screen resolution nowadays is 1024 x 768 pixels, so make sure that your website fits inside it.
42. No spelling or grammatical mistakes: this is not a web design mistake, but it is one of the most important factors affecting the overall quality of a website. Make sure that your links and texts do not contain spelling or grammatical mistakes.
43. If you use CAPTCHA make sure the letters are readable: several sites use CAPTCHA filters as a method of reducing spam on comments or on registration forms. There is just one problem with it, most of the times the user needs to call his whole family to decipher the letters.
Source : http://www.dailyblogtips.com/43-web-design-mistakes-you-should-avoid/