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> Best Page Layout for Websites
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Is there a "Best Page
Layout for Websites"? Sorry to be boring, but yes!
The internet has been around for long enough for experience to tell us
what works and what doesn't in terms of website layout. As a web designer,
you can either go with the established traditions and learn from the experience
of others, or you try to re-invent the wheel. Generally speaking, you
don't need to re-invent anything and following the consensus will give
you a much greater chance of success.
A successful website starts with a simple and intuitive layout!
To understand which layouts work best for websites you only need to look
at websites created by some of the top 300 companies in Australia. These
companies have huge marketing and IT budgets, so they have spent the time
seeing what works. Good Australian examples include:
By analysing these websites (any many more), you will start to identify
common elements of the page layouts in all of these sites.
The layout elements which should remain constant are:
- Header across the top – the header is where the logo goes and
usually any images that support the subject matter throughout the website.
- The left hand column - should contain all the primary menu elements,
which should remain constant throughout the website. It should list
all the main categories of the website, so users can find their way
around from every page.
- The right hand column - if this is used, it should provide links to
pages in the website you want to highlight, such as newsletter sign-up,
latest news, etc.
- Top menu – some sites have most of their navigation in the top
menu bar which goes across the page under the header (see Woolworths).
There are a two main problems with this style of main menu:
- it restricts the number of menu items you can have.
- it often means that the website has drop down menus to allow for
links to additional pages. These can be harder for users and search
engines to use.
- Bottom menu – this footer of every page tends to contain links
to the website's lesser pages such as terms and conditions, privacy
statement, site map, etc.
- The central column - contains the content. On the home page, this
is often a combination of an over of the website and teasers for articles.
On the content pages, the articles and images sit in the central column.
- Search box - can be placed anywhere towards the top of the page, but
is often at top right on every page. This is the area used to search
the content of the website.
Within these layout guidelines there is still scope to own style and
design. However, the first aim should always be to keep the layout consistent;
that makes it simpler for your visitors to use.
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