Comments on: The Right-Side Column: Just Noise?

By: westworld

westworld — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 14:20:51 +0000

If I pay big money for my ads, I want people to look at them. If the top of the center column is most looked at, then that’s where my money would go, not the right column.

Idea: A Google banner is generated based on the content on the page. So a good banner will be about the same topic as the article on the page. Putting this add within my article should give a higher click-through. This is a good idea for the site owner -> more income, and more views/visits for the advertiser.

BTW congrats on the article in Knack magazine: http://makr.roularta.be/archief/ShowArtikel.do?artikelId=1209297

By: Oliver Reichenstein

Oliver Reichenstein — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 12:53:32 +0000

@ Westworld: Why is that?

By: westworld

westworld — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 12:32:27 +0000

I guess this proves that newspapers should sell advertisement space inside the article and not above or to the right.

By: M's

M's — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 15:34:34 +0000

one column layouts: the new web designer drug...

Now that the early Cyberspace! euphoria is over, people are discovering the joy of ultra-simplicity in web design. Unlike in print and TV, where fancy layouts have no impact on delivery, complex web designs decrease usability by making the page...

By: StrayPackets · Six ‘Check These Later’ Bookmarks

StrayPackets · Six ‘Check These Later’ Bookmarks — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 03:38:59 +0000

[...] 6. Is the Right Column Useful? and Do we really need a site navigation? — Everyone puts them on their sites, especially bloggers. Does anyone really use them? Maybe they’re just wasted space. Tags: WordPress, WP-Cache, Movable Type, Haloscan, blogs, comments, web design, Devonthink, CSS, XHTML, Photoshop, sidebars, Zotero, Firefox, web typography [...]

By: Romerican

Romerican — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 22:01:20 +0000

I tend to ignore most column content, be it left or right. Nevertheless, there are one or two sites a month where I find myself scouring a column because the site in questions is a blurred mess of design and I cannot locate what I seek.

Interestingly, I love the multi-column layout used by the International Herald Tribune. It's the only one I can think of, at the moment. It might be just newspaper familiarity, but it feels good to read the content as a page instead a long scrolling, never-ending web page. FWIW.

By: coldfish

coldfish — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 05:44:42 +0000

Simplicity is beauty.

By: David Guillory

David Guillory — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 05:43:46 +0000

The eye-tracking graphic from NN Group demonstrated that users are just as unlikely to pore over Google text ads as they are to stare at banner ads. It’s a pretty big leap from that fairly obvious observation to saying that using a right column is “useless”. Certain content might be more or less useful than other content, but I’m not sure how you can say that a layout element, regardless of its content, has no merit. If the only acceptable layout is one column with a fancy footer, we might as well just hang it up right now.

By: Oliver Reichenstein

Oliver Reichenstein — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 05:18:59 +0000

Good point. Yet, if they come via search engine, they should find right away what they want, as they’ll probably hit a content page first. Now the next click on the navigation would usually be the home link, where they should have an overview of what is going on on the page. I just got rid of the navigation and the column, so it is too early to back it up with data. What I can say so far is, that it definately had no negative impact on the stickyness. I’ll keep you posted. As soon as I have enough data I’ll publish the results.

By: Pete

Pete — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 05:07:52 +0000

You might not need a side navigation bar if most of your readers are repeat vistors.

But if your vistors mostly come via search engines, and they don't instantly see what they want, they are more likely to leave then to scroll down. A side navigation gives them better and quicker option.