At home I normally use a better setup, my home-built quad-core desktop with dual 24″ monitors. (Yes, I did get identical, I had to)

Where would I be without these 2 monitors? The setup is perfect for designing websites. On one screen I can have a maximised Netbeans screen, allowing me to view a large amount of lines of code, while on the other screen I can have a 1920×1200 resolution view of the website I am designing. There is no need to be switching between applications, a simple right click upload on Netbeans means I can drag the mouse over to the other screen, refresh and my changes are there.

One of the other benefits of dual screens comes when using a Virtual Machine. I run Ubuntu on my desktop and so using Internet Explorer is only done (Without WINE) through a Virtual Machine running XP. This means that on my 2nd screen I can run Firefox and Internet explorer, the 2 main browsers I have to consider. There is no more need to run my desktop and my laptop at the same time, I can simply run the Virtual Machine when I need to test the website on IE.

It’s all well me saying that dual monitors are all that – but do they really improve your work rate? Do they actually make you work better?

Microsoft investigated in their article “Two Screens Are Better Than One”, Microsoft found that using multiple screens can increase the users productivity of between 9 and 50%. Not only is it better to have a multiple screens, but it is also cheaper to buy 2 smaller screens rather than buying 1 large screen.

After using multiple screens for a while now, I do not believe it would be possible for me to work well without 2 screens. I may even move on to tri-monitors!

On a site note – they’re great for ‘watching while you’re working’! I can sit in front of my computer, watch my favorite episode of Family Guy while doing my work – what could be better?

Jack

Tweet This Post

5) 3 Column – 1 Header (+ Footer?) Fluid

3 Column 1 Header Fluid Layout

This layout allows for a large amount of content to be displayed on each page. Perfect for a website that has a lot to say about itself or advertise. The 2 outer columns have the same width (for example, 25%) and the central column accounts for the remaining percentage. This ensures that it fills the full screen of any resolution the website is viewed on. Great for a variety of users, ones with large screens and also small screens. The reason for me putting this layout so low down in the ranking is because it is fluid. I know users moan about having large screens and website designers not utilizing all the space. However, if the width is kept fixed, the look of the website is the same on all screens.

I hate going to a website and seeing the main column stretch all the screen and few lines of text there are stretch with it.

4) Single Column with Footer

Single Large Column Footer

This layout seems to be widely used for websites that have a gallery that needs to be splashed in front of the users eyes as soon as they hit the site. The size of the single column allows for high detail photographs and images to be displayed to the user. If there are not too many links for the website, maybe it is a single page website that is simply advertising a product, the footer can be used to contain links to smaller pages based around the website.

However, if there is a need for links, they can be hovered over the large images. The reason I put this one lower down in my rankings is due to the lack of usability. There is not much space for content and so designers may find it difficult to get great search engine results.

3) Single Column with Header

Single Column with Header

Very similar to the previous layout, this one replaces the footer with a header. The header can be used for a navigation bar. I am currently in the process of designin a website with a layout similar to this for a windows company. The large column is used to display a set of large photographs with text hovered over the top on a transparent gray background. I especially like this more than the previous due to the use of a header.

Although, this and the previous layout could be combined and the use of a footer and header would allow for important links and second order links.

2) 3 Column, fixed width with header

Fixed Width 3 Column Header

One of my personal favorites is the fixed width, 3 column layout. Similar to one of the previous layouts, this layout allows for a large amount of content to be displayed. However, unlike the earlier 3 column layout, this layout has a fixed width and so should look the same on all browsers.

If the width is chosen correctly, the layout will look great on all resolutions from 1280 to 1920. I would only use this layout though if I had a large amount of content to display. With a low amount of content, the layout would look bare and empty. This is what leads on to my number 1 layout.

1) 2 Column, fixed width with header

2 Columns, fixed width with header

This layout is my favorite out of the set I have listed in this article. It allows for important content to be displayed in the larger column and secondary information to be displayed in the smaller column.

Information that could be included in the larger column ranges from blog posts to site news to latest offers. The smaller column can be used for information that is not important but still relevant. For example, the top 10 blog entries, the most read articles etc. I have used this layout in most of my websites, as you can see from my portfolio and will always consider this layout first before any others.

I hope you find this article interesting. If you agree or disagree with me, please leave me some comments, I look forward to hearing what you think. Also, let me know what you think are some of the best layouts you have used.

Jack

Tweet This Post

After reading what others thought should appear in the footer on a page, I thought I would write about what I think should be there.

There are in no particular order.

Second Order Links

Do you have any links that aren’t of enough importance to appear amongst your “main navigation”? If you do, why not place them in the footer? They are acessible from every page and do not intrude on the look of your site. Here’s a few examples of what could be listed.

• About us
• Privacy Policy
• Terms and Conditions
• Postal Address and Country of Origin
• A simple link back to the website designer
• A link to the home page

Blog Links

If your website, like mine does not have the blog as the main page, why not link to a few of the “Top Articles” or the “Recently Viewed Articles”. As long as these articles are relevant, I believe they should help with the keywords and their density on each page. Not only does it help with keywords, but if a user gets to the bottom of your page after not clicking on anything, they may find something of interest amongst the results in the footer. This in turn could decrease the “bounce back” rate of your site as the user is still active and has not left.

Be careful when adding blog links, if the blog entry is not relevant, it could play havock with the keywords on the main page by lowering their density. Why not pick a relevant category and add the ones which have been recently read?

Jobs

I am sure you have all come across websites that offer jobs. If the site has vanacies which do not need to be filled quickly, you could add a small link to the jobs page in the footer. Once a user has finished reading the content of your site they will get to the footer and if the content is good enough and there are jobs available, they will more than likely have a look.

Back to the top

This is something that quite a few websites I have visited have included in their footer. It is simply a link that takes you back to the top of the page. This makes it easier for the user visiting your page to return to the main area of the site where the links reside and hopefully extend their stay.

Feedback

It is always good to know what other people think of your website. A feedback link would allow them to actually tell you what they think. Whether this be a javascript pop up (for those with javascript enabled) or a seperate page. People may not use it often but on the odd occasion they do, you might get some helpful tips.

Well there’s my list. I hope you enjoyed what I had to say.

I look forward to any comments.

Jack

Tweet This Post

In no particular order.

1) Background Music

Personally, this my pet peeve. I hate background music when visiting a website. Not only does it slow down the loading time but it’s a startle when you are either a)Already listening to loud music or b) Don’t have any music on at all. If the website wants to have background music, I think the visitor should have to press a play button.

2) Advertisements Galore

Now I know people want to make money, but having a site that is FULL of adverts, and I mean full. I don’t mind sites that have a section of their layout devoted to adverts, but putting them in every possible place surely lowers the chance of them being clicked? Personally, if I saw a site like this I would be leaving it immediately.

3) Full Flash Website

This is more of a personal dislike than anything. Flash websites can look extremely nice in some cases, but in others I think it is just too much. I prefer a professional, sleek and simple website. One that is easy to navigate and has a nice color scheme. There are the things that hit me once I’ve done the first design of a website, which leads me to scrapping the design and doing the second, even the third!

4) Keyword Stuffing

I am sure that everyone knows this already but I had to include it. Keyword stuffing is good and bad. Good because it can boost your keyword results (in theory!) but bad because you run the risk (high I believe) of being removed from search engines. Instead of keyword stuffing, it is just as easy to re-read your content, change a few words, add a new page like a blog. Include the latest blog on the main page as long as it is relevant. If it is not relevant, you are moving backwards because you are lowering the density of the existing keywords.

5) Silly Fonts

This part of the website design process I find extremely difficult. When designing any banners or headers, I really struggle with finding a suitable font. The font has to suite the existing web-safe fonts that I would be using on the content of the site. Some fonts I particularly like are “Dax” (The UPS Font), “Delicious” font-family and Arial. However, some that I don’t like include “Comic Sans” and “Courier”. (Just my preference!)

If you have anymore to add, leave me a comment!

Jack

Tweet This Post