It’s 16:56 right now, and looking at my browsing history I have looked at roughly 50 different websites today. I have been busy with studyin, so today it’s probably less than it could have been, or will be in a few hours (writing this post is the last thing on my todo-list).

When I come to a website, I do so in the pursuit of something. Usually I found it via google, or some rss feed pointed me in the direction of it. I did not come to randomly browse around your website and see if I can find anything of use. Nobody does. It simply does not work that way. Why? Because it is inefficient.

So with that in mind, let’s look a at a typical website layout.

And here is what I see… or try to see.

I don’t care about what your header looks like or what the menu items are. I especially don’t care what your logo looks like. No, I won’t remember it. Whatever you put in your sidebar is there to distract me while I am trying to read what you wrote, and nothing else. There is no other reason to put it there. I might read it, but there is one thing you can be certain about: If I stop reading the content, and start reading that, it’s because the content is boring and/or useless to me, and you can be sure I won’t follow you on twitter or read what you were born.

Instead, put information in the footer, and provide me with an easy way to get to the front page (just to save me the trouble of doing it myself in the address bar), where I can find the information I need.

In this age of trying to please the user best way possible, I am surprised at how common this type of layout is. How everyone seems to want to cram every possible detail and option into every single subpage. Don’t do that. Give me what I came for, and give me an easy way to find more in case I do want that. That’s it.