Web development is a playground of innovation and when it appears a new worthy feature, it usually grows into the soil firmly. It also happened with multi column layout, too. It was adopted to web development once and now we see how often it is used by modern designers and how fast it is developing.
The question about the concept of multi column content arrangement is whether it is as good as it seems to be or not. In this post, you will find both benefits and drawbacks of this layout style, and after we sum everything up, you are going to have a finished image of this design technique in your mind.
What is a Multi Column Layout?
A website may be developed having a single or multi column layout. The real difference is observed visually quite clearly: it can be a website with an edge-to-edge content area, i.e. which has a single column layout, or perhaps the design might be burgled parts, once we give them a call, columns. It's done to further improve the readability in the text and offer users with the easy-to-perceive text site. The most prominent demonstration of the way to implement this feature is really a newspaper. This is the reason why many-column sites are termed as newspaper web site design style.
Benifits of Multi Column Layout Websites
READABILITY
Two, three or even more columns of the content are easy to realize on any website. When the text is divided into short (I would even say narrow) sections, it is more convenient to read it. Plus, it boosts the reading speed greatly.
COMPREHENSION
Shorter lines increase the quality of perception, so far as users can go back to the last line they were reading before they distracted their attention from it to a picture or advertisement placed on the other page side. So use them in your website may help to increase the user experience.
VISUAL APPEAL
Love it or hate it, websites with multi-column layout look much better than one-column designs. It allows you to make a separate column for text, ads, banners, gallery, testimonials, contacts, etc. And, you probably know how important appearance of a website is.
Drawbacks of Multi Column Layout Websites
INCONVENIENCE
Unfortunately, many-column layout sites cause discomfort for many users. This is explained by the page height. For example, the web page is divided into equal and accurate columns, but the page height is so big that users need to scroll for reading. Then, of course it is irritating to scroll down to read the first column and then scroll upwards to read the second one. This actually differs on digital pages from printed newspapers, where readers can spread out a paper to see all the columns at once.
Solution: adjust the page to an appropriate height and avoid scrolling.
MOBILE
Responsive design is a must-have today, and you can’t ignore it just because you want your website to have a multi column layout. It is obvious that many text columns will be impossible to read on a phone or tablet. It may confuse readers to understand and not easy to find what they want in a short time.
Solution: you should develop a mobile version of your site just absolutely opposite to your desktop version. Make it a single-column layout for phones, a two-column design for tablets and three-column website for big screens. Keep these proportions and you will have no problems. If your website is mobile responsive, don't forget to delete some useless functions or columns when it optimized for mobile.
Conclusion
Multi column layout websites are good-looking and they are very user-friendly. The elementary conditions of a high-quality many-column layout are the right page height, the column width, the column gap (space between columns), colors, fonts, responsiveness. Make good use of multi column layout, and it will improve your websites' attraction.
Do you like the appearance of multi column site design? Have you created any such sites? Please leave your opinions and send us a message. More about our services, please refer to: eCommerce website development
