Question: Should we forget columns?
Columns are a great way to arrange content on web pages. But if you're designing for mobile, multiple columns might not be the best solution.
Answer:
Benefits of Columns
Columns give you more space to place content elements. Most people are used to reading articles in columnar layouts because of newspapers and magazines. And columns keep the scan line short enough to read.
Columns Can be Hard on Small Devices
On mobile devices, columns can be very hard to use. It makes sense, when you think about it, if a smartphone is only 2 inches wide, then any columns that are showing will be even smaller than that.
So, Should We Stop Designing Columns?
No, don't stop. There are several things you can do before throwing out the columns altogether:
- Use CSS3 media queries to create single column versions of the page for smaller devices.
- Create layouts that adjust with the width of the browser. These are called variable width layouts.
- Learn to love single column layouts. They really don't have to be ugly or ineffective.
