Poll: How many columns is too many in a Web layout?
Thursday January 11, 2007
I read an article the other day saying that Web 2.0 sites should have fewer columns than are common on Web 1.0 sites.
Do you agree? I mean, sure most Web 2.0 sites tend to stick to 1-2 columns or at most 3, but is there a maximum for good design? Assuming that you're designing for an 800 pixel wide browser window, how many columns is too many? The most I've generated in a free layout is five in my multiple boxes layout.
How many columns is too many in a Web layout?
- More than 1 I prefer a minimalist layout
- More than 2
- More than 3
- More than 4
- More than 5
- As many as will fit I use what I need
Comments
the data type effects this
It all depends on content and purpose. Some types of pages and content should never go beyond 1, some function best with 3, and then right before I voted I found some layouts with more than 5 that worked for the content. Example, this page has 4 columns and it works. One of the pages I designed (noisebrakers.com, its in the gallery of design) had 2 columns. Of coarse, I don’t think I’ve seen more that 5 though…
Just a thought when considering this issue….please remember that there are a lot of “baby-boomers” like me on the net. The size of text necessitated by a five-column layout usually makes it too small for us “old-timers” to read. Even when using reasonable font sizes on our website, we have received complaints that the text can become too small for some readers.
I prefer a single column of text, but this survey only allows for “more than one” as the minimum. The smallest number of columns allowed with “more than one” would be “two”, not the answer I want to leave.
Marcus: read the question again. It’s “How many columns is too many?”
If I were to provide the answer of “1 column” that would be saying that you think that 1 column is too many. In other words, you would want a Web site with zero columns - or blank.
Since I’m making the assumption that people coming to this site want to design sites with content on them (ie. not blank) zero columns or 1 being too many is not an option.
For those unhappy with the “more than one” choice, I just thought I would point out that the question was: “how many columns is *too many*?” If there was a “just one” option, that would imply that even one column was too many, in which case you probably should avoid web pages entirely. (-:
Oops–didn’t see Jennifer’s reply–nevermind!
Leha: I think you summed it up well.