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Multicolumn Layouts and Web Grids. 1. Page Areas. When the Internet evolved from a text-only environment to a visual one, web pages went through a serious evolution. Many different visual aids started appearing ever once in a while. More and more pages turned to the media and primarily images to catch the user's eye. Nonetheless, the users eventually got used to it and soon they started ignoring the most common tricks and focused on the real content. During this evolution, the web surfers developed certain habits that still populate the web. One of this is the focus on different aspects of the page. For example, when the user is looking for the title of the page or article, he will instinctively look at the top part of the web page. This is due to the fact that in every other media, just like in the web, the headline comes at the top. But some other habits are not that obvious, for example, unless told otherwise, the user will look for navigation links at the left side of the page, if they are not found there; he will look below the headline to search for them. Also, if the surfer is confronted with both left and right navigation bars, he will give preference to the left one. Without giving anymore examples, I present you this graphic that exemplify the user's focus around a common website. Just to remember you, this is not a webpage per webpage basis analysis; it was developed from the compilation of many results on many different pages and on many different subjects. As it was stated before, this is due to some habits the Net has imprinted on the surfers' minds.
As you can see the top 3 spots in a web page are the body (center), the headline (top) and the left column. This is a very valuable concept for a designer and for an advertiser, but what does it has to do with web developing? The answer is simple, if you want to draw focus into a specific area, you should consider carefully its position so that you don't go against the users' habits and therefore you get a more efficient site. But that is not all there is to this concept, it is important to establish and distinguish this areas so that you can really draw the visitor's attention. If any web surfer comes to a site and sees nothing but chaos he will be confused and will not be able to find what he was looking for, even if it's right in front of him. So, continue reading for more on this subject as we enter the "basic grid" grounds. |
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