Happy new year to all forumites!
I would like to hear your opinions on an observation I have made. It seems to me more and more modern websites come in a more or less standardized layout. I’m not talking about the styling in details, but about the general layout structure. A new standard seems to be: horizontal menu at the top, with the company logo to the left, a full-width banner below it, sometimes with slogans or teaser text inserted, then the content below it.
Am I right, do you agree on this observation? Are there other layout structures that you see rising?
Well, yes, you’ve observed the trend right.
There are different aspects of design that should be structured in a standardized way – to make web surfing easier and more intuitive for viewers, and there are other web design elements that lend themselves to more independent, original and fluid (whatever you want to call it) ways. It’s a designer’s choice, since nowadays we have at our disposal almost limitless tools – certainly more tools and methods that we ever had in the past – to fulfill our designer’s imagination.
There are also some restrictions, like the requirement for websites to look acceptable on different devices.
I totally agree Markus, I’m finding the same thing. I am about to update my own company website and when I look at other sites, the majority look just like you say. I’m not that sure that I actually want my site to look like everyone else’s, but it must be a successful design model because everybody seems to be doing it!
We are reading (here) from left to right and from top to bottom. The logo top left is the first thing you will notice. You have to tell your visitor who you are and what you are doing. Best at first sight. The layout you mentioned does telling this and the people are familiar with it. You can break every design rule, but you should have a reason for this. In fact, we should break all the (design) rules. 