

Ask HN: What are your favorite / least favorite site layout styles? - robotrout

I'm a coder, not an artist.  I find myself spending too much time agonizing over how to make my sites look.  I thought I'd ask folks what they preferred.<p>For example, what width?  I've recently begun using the 960.gs grid system (960 px wide).  I notice that most new sites are still using something narrower.  Is 960 still considered by most to be too wide?<p>How about framing the content like hacker news does, vs an open format like Google does?  Again, I notice that most new sites seem to be abandoning the framing, in favor of the open style, or a hybrid style, where the header is open, but there is framed content underneath.<p>Then there's the whole landing page business.  Do you clutter up the landing page with information like 37 signals, or do you leave the landing page uncluttered, with a prominent link to the "sales page" like dropbox does?<p>I know this is all just personal taste, opinion, etc, but I'd be interested in yours.
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ankeshk
Design depends on your target audience.

1\. Page Width

If your target audience is tech un-savvy folks - go with a narrow screen
width. 780 pixels. If its folks keep up with technology, go with 960 pixels.

If you're designing for cellphones, reduce your width accordingly.

2\. Column width

Readability tests have shown that 50-60 characters per line is the optimum.
More text than that per line and people's reading speeds decrease. And their
comprehension takes a dive too. So sticking with 500 pixels per column of text
is generally a good idea.

3\. Landing page style

Basic formula to keep in mind is: AIDA

* Attention

* Interest

* Desire

* Action

Follow them in sequence.

Good post to read: <http://zygote.egg-co.com/designing-to-sell/>

Advanced formula is creating landing pages based on your target audiences
personas.

Step 1: Figure out all the types and segments of people who will visit your
website. <http://www.futurenowinc.com/personas.htm>

Step 2: Determine what you need to do to persuade each of these types of
personas to take action

Step 3: Create different navigational pathways for each of these persona
types.

Good book to read: Waiting for Your Cat to Bark
[http://www.amazon.com/Waiting-Your-Cat-Bark-
Persuading/dp/07...](http://www.amazon.com/Waiting-Your-Cat-Bark-
Persuading/dp/0785218971) (Note: its a book with excellent content but reads
like a boring textbook.)

Good website to deconstruct and learn from: <http://www.theleodiamond.com/>
(This website is created for 6 different persona types.

* Very curious analytical type people who research before buying

* Folks who are fashion conscious

* Girls choosing the diamond

* Guys choosing the diamond

* Media, investors etc

* Folks who already know about Leo Diamonds and just want to find the nearest location

Can you see how different keywords and linking / navigation structure is used
for each of these personas?)

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ScottWhigham
Hmmm - I don't know that I have a particular style that I like; I'm more of a,
"When I see what I {like | dislike}, I know it immediately." That probably
doesn't help.

For our site, we went with the fixed width layout and I'm happy. For more
link-driven/based sites (a la reddit/hn/digg), I prefer a full screen layout I
suppose since I don't want to scroll forever.

For landing pages, I wish I could tell you anything useful. What I've found,
after several years of trying to predict what would be successful, is that I
suck at predicting what people will like. Test, test, test...

I suppose to me it all boils down to one thing: usability. Gorgeous designs
fail if they aren't usable and crappy designed sites who fit a need thrive.
Now I'm just rambling...

Here's a couple of book recomendations:

* "Letting Go of the Words: Writing Web Content that Works" by Janie Redish - fantastic book. It isn't about design/layout per se but it is, see?

* "Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability" by Steve Krug

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odvious
I like sites that mix liquid width style and fixed width (centered) content. I
vary my site's width with how much content there will be and try to balance
the whitespace out with the amount of text/content, usually between 800 and
950 pixels wide.

As for landing page, I think it should highlight whatever is the most
important part of your site. The first thing I should notice is what you do
and if I'm interested, have a well defined navigation so I can learn more.

On a truly personal note, I love big footers from both a design and usability
point of view :)

