When it comes to designing a website that will be visually effective, as well as practical and functional, there are a number of things to consider. From the layout, to the buttons, the text to the imagery, each design choice is essential for success. One option is to use columns to divide content. But can this be effective for your website? And how can these be designed and used effectively? Well, here at Pumpkin Web Design Manchester, we build websites specifically tailored to the requirements of companies and businesses across Manchester and the North West, including Blackburn and Chorley. We provide the perfect web design solutions for clients in all areas of business and industry. As a result, we have produced this guide to everything you should know about using columns in web design.
What are the different ways to use columns in web design?
To organise your content into columns in web design, you should consider:
- A simple two column layout- two separate columns can be plain and simple, or more complex. For example, these can be used as part of a split screen layout, with both text columns on one side, paired with an image on the other, or one column on each side.
- A three column layout- three columns can be very effective combining images and text with a structured, organised approach.
- Bordered columns- for a more formal approach you can use dividers or borders between each column.
What are the benefits of website columns?
There are a number of advantages to using columns in web design. These include:
- Dividing written content with visual barriers- information can be organised with the right subheadings and imagery, into two or three neat columns.
- Easier to compare- for things like product or service comparisons, using columns to divide the content can help improve the user experience and make it easier to read, and compare key details. This in turn can lead to an increase in sales.
- Uses the full space- using columns either with card based layouts, grid based layouts, to simple text organisation can make effective use of the full screen space, especially on a desktop or horizontal screen. This reduce the scrolling effort for your website users.
What are the disadvantages of website columns?
The one main disadvantage of this type of content layout and organisation is responsive design. When your website is accessed by a mobile user, and this will probably be more frequent than desktop users, the website should be responsive to the device. As a result, your columns will simply stack neatly, one on top of the other. This means that the content will look completely different on a mobile device, and may not be as easy to compare, or read for your users.
For more information or advice, or for high quality, professional web design solutions, get in touch with the experts today, here at Pumpkin Web Design Manchester.