Blog design best practice: Scrollbars not sidebars

Reading time: About 1 minute

The more information and options you have “above the fold,” the more a user is presented with upon opening a webpage and therefore the more likely a user will experience information overload right from the start.

99% of the blogs I visit have sidebar, so I know my design is part of a miniscule minority. But sidebars are a flawed design for the very reason that they present the user with “secondary” information in an attempt to keep everything above the fold. Why are blog designers trying to fit secondary information above the fold when users adapted to scrolling by 1997?

I’m not at all against keeping primary information above the fold, but don’t fear putting secondary information below the fold.

Scrolling allows for progressive disclosure of secondary content. After all, when your users arrive at one of your blog articles, they are probably immediately looking for content and not related info or options. Let them engage in the blog article before you present them with further options.

On a related note, research shows users scan content vertically, not horizontally. Breaking this eye pattern can be disruptive to users’ natural behaviors.

Sample blogs (other than this one) that don’t use sidebars

Jakob Nielson’s Alertbox

Jakob Nielson's Alertbox

Bokardo Social Web Design

Bokardo Social Web Design

Susan Zelinski – Zen of Business, Business of Zen

Susan Zelinski - Zen of Business, Business of Zen

LOL, there’s not many (got tired of searching)

20 comments skip to comment form

  1. Andy said— 36 minutes later

    There’s one you can add to the list – my wifes site, http://www.stephsblog.co.uk

    #1

  2. Mert TOL said— 48 minutes later

    LOL! Bakardo killed me.

    #2

  3. Brian Cray said— 54 minutes later

    @Andy: That’s a cool design!

    @Mert TOL: What do you mean Bokardo killed you?

    #3

  4. Mert TOL said— 1 hour later

    @Brian: I mean, very long page. I didn’t see like this before :) Definitely, should use sidebar. Great catch.

    #4

  5. Sean O said— 1 hour later

    Yikes. With 2 sidebars on my site, I guess I’m doubly guilty of this. :)

    It’s time for a re-design anyway…

    #5

  6. The Incidental Economist said— 2 hours later

    Maybe I’m not a typical user. When I go to a blog or any other website I like to see the structure of the site. I like to know how to navigate around, what else is there, and so forth. This helps me get a sense of whether the source is worth paying attention to.

    I only read the post after getting oriented. Sometimes the process of getting oriented illustrates that the blogger/site isn’t good and doesn’t know what he is talking about.

    In summary, I like to evaluate credibility before specific content. Bad credibility means the content isn’t worth much.

    #6

  7. Ryan said— 2 hours later

    I agree. Wish there was more sites that followed this principle. Here’s another example: http://watchshock.com/

    #7

  8. Josh said— 3 hours later

    Mine has no sidebars! http://tastyrails.com/ Oh, how proud I am!

    #8

  9. Ashwin said— 3 hours later

    Hmm… That’s a good post. Your blog design is neat without a Sidebar and it focuses on the content.

    I will try that in one of my designs and let you know how it goes.

    Thanks

    #9

  10. Adam Pieniazek said— 11 hours later

    Screw the sidebars! Long live the focus on content! Hehe.

    You can add my blog to the list of sidebar-less designs. Another benefit of no sidebars is bigger, wider content, that can still degrade gracefully to a 800 x 600 resolution.

    #10

  11. aravind said— 17 hours later

    here is another on.. I just found it – http://olliejudge.com/
    I’m not a great fan of singe column designs though.. :P

    #11

  12. aravind said— 17 hours later

    here is another one.. just found it – http://olliejudge.com/
    I’m not a great fan of singe column designs though.. :P

    #12

  13. Dave Sparks said— 20 hours later

    I don’t have a problem with sidebars really, not sure if it’s a personal preference or if there’s any benefit from either option.

    Still here’s another side bar-less blog
    http://www.calicott.com/

    #13

  14. Brad said— 1 day later

    Brian,

    Excellent post.

    I was built a wordpress theme that worked and operated JUST like UseIt.com and it’s coversion rates were amazing… way better than any 2 column or (yikes) 3 column sites out there.

    The only problem was that people didn’t have a good “feeling” about the site, even if it was highly usable. I guess there is a gap between what people can use and what people like. Finding that balance may be the key.

    Brad

    #14

  15. Brian Cray said— 2 days later

    Brad: Great point! There is certainly a balance between form and function and I’m always searching for that elusive balance! =)

    #15

  16. Paul Olyslager said— 2 weeks later

    Always found it interesting when someone had a different opinion than the other 99% :) . I do agree people scan the page in a linear way (vertically) and designing to that pattern is good… but i think that your “breaking this eye pattern can be disruptive”-comment is a bit too much :) . I see it more as a little pause from reading further down. As long the reading process is consistant in any way and easy on the eye, it should be fine for the reader.

    I do agree with putting secondary information below the fold, but i do believe the primary information definatly should be on top of the fold. People need aprox. 8 to 12 seconds to decide if they find your information usefull or not… You don’t have to overwelm them with all your information (this will create an aversion towards your website) but the most important should be visible right away.

    #16

  17. brad said— 6 months later

    Here’s another great example…
    http://diveintomark.org/

    /b

    #17

  18. Peter Cooper said— 7 months later

    What about the fixed “sidebar” on the far right of this very page? ;-)

    Anyway, I agree for the most part, but things like subscription options are important to most content creators (as they appear to be for you to have them fixed on the right) so while cutting the fat is a great idea, there are a few “secondary” things that are important enough to live above the fold on many sites.

    #18

  19. Peter Cooper said— 7 months later

    A little confused by a couple of the suggestions in the comments above.. Watch Shock and Ollie Judge clearly have sidebars (spam?).. Watch Shock’s has about 100 categories in it! I’ll throw one of my faves into the fray though: http://rc3.org/

    #19

  20. seTweaks said— 10 months later

    http://seTweaks.com

    #20

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