Which column layout do I need?
Generally, you may as well leave the decision of how many columns you need on your site to your web designer. But, still, you need to know whether you’ll be going in the right direction. Here is what you need to know.
Column layout is the aftertaste of use of tables for layouts. This technique is gradually being replaced by web developers, who either redesign the sites with CSS or create new sites with CSS altogether. But column layouts are still used with CSS to show as much information as possible, so you may as well see which one you’d rather go with.
1-column layout
One column layout is usually used on sites that have little content or are designed for small screen resolutions. Usually, having a one-column layout is useful for having the widest main reading area so that site visitors don’t scroll much. However, with increasing screen resolutions, one-column layout still has to be narrow enough to keep the lines short enough for convenient reading.
Generally, if you start to think that you may as well make some special offer more prominent but you don’t want to switch to another layout for some reason, you may as well show a link to your offer between your top navigation and the main content area or above the footer. Or both.
2-column layout
Two column layout is generally used when you need to have secondary (left or right) navigation or provide additional links to more content. 2-column layout may be used for sites with about 30-100 pages. While the main column will still be reading area, the second column may be used to point your site visitors to your special offers, related or simply interesting material.
With a 2-column layout, you can have links to pages in the site section the visitor is in as well as to related material in the section all in one secondary column. So, you may not really need to use a three column layout if you have lots of material.
3-column layout
Three column layout may be generally used to have both left and right hand navigation. The 3-column layout may give more insight to your visitors what you have and provide efficient site navigation as well. However, if your content is limited and you don’t need the three columns, you’d rather resort to 1- or 2-column layouts.
3-column layout should rather be used when you have a lot of content and want to make your secondary content more noticeable to your visitors.
Generally, if you are not completely sure which layout to go with, leave this decision to your web designer. But generally, you should know more than the designer about your content and suggest the layout that you think may be more efficient, so that the designer would choose the most suitable one.
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