Blog design best practice: Scrollbars not sidebars

Re:Blog design best practice: Scrollbars not sidebars by onreact-com on Wednesday August 26, 2009 @11:42AM (#787361)

Well, in your case the ads (secondary information) are above the fold/scroll as well and they are quite distracting.

Also there is the issue of too broad text chunks known both in typography and usability for making reading more difficult.

Apart from that I tend to agree with you.

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Re:Blog design best practice: Scrollbars not sidebars by briancray on Wednesday August 26, 2009 @11:48AM (#787370)

The broad text chunks are certainly a problem, but recent studies have proven that longer line lengths promote faster reading: http://www.456bereastreet.com/archive/200509/line_length_and...

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Re:Blog design best practice: Scrollbars not sidebars by marc28443 on Wednesday August 26, 2009 @01:09PM (#787573)

well, this seems to be a fairly balanced summary of the research (available if you explore the link you mention):

http://blog.fawny.org/2005/09/21/measures/

In essence, most studies indicate longer line length leads to faster reading. But also, people on average seem to prefer having a moderate line length over a longer one.

In my view the latter measure is more important. I'd rather have a layout which is more pleasing than one which is faster to read.

(Of course ideally you have a variable-width layout so the reader can choose himself)

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