responses

1. Ben McElroy2007/12/11 @ 9:26

   Interesting - I can definitely see where he’s coming from on the 3-column layout. I’m not quite with him that it’s “3 column of idiocy” because I have seen some 3 columns done nicely. I do like his mockup for the Apple store though - it makes much more logical and hierarchal sense. but I think the takeaway is good from his article - to be more aware of the limits and possibilities of the medium you’re designing in.

2. bchild3112007/12/11 @ 10:48

   Very interesting article. One thing though, if everyone is doing it then won’t people be used to looking in the appropriate place for the ancillary items when browsing? His logic makes sense and his own redesigns have a stronger hierarchy. Can we say that about Apple?

3. Ben McElroy2007/12/11 @ 10:58

   Yeah, there is the inertia of doing things because they are familiar - but in Apple’s case I think removing the left sidebar and combining it with the right makes more information design sense - So the left side has the “main” items Apple sells and thus has the primary focus, while the right column has supporting items, services, special deals, etc. that help support the main items that Apple sells. Its a cleaner, less chaotic approach to what Apple currently does. I think users would appreciate it and adapt to it very quickly.

4. fubbs2007/12/11 @ 12:24

   I don’t agree that the 3-column layout is bad. The ‘guns don’t kill people; people kill people’ line of reason comes to mind here. In fact, he basically says this himself:

   “…mostly it just allows people who don’t understand design and who cannot craft a good content hierarchy to have places to put all sorts of extra info on a page”

   How could the layout alternative he proposes not fall victim to the same marketing blitzkrieg convoluting so many otherwise logical page flows?

5. bchild3112007/12/11 @ 12:29

   They should use Omniture to track their marketing efforts and make sure the design is working properly.

6. Ben McElroy2007/12/11 @ 13:14

   Fubbs, I agree. 3 column does not equal bad. I think Andy didn’t really clarify that in his post and one could definitely take away that idea - that Andy hates 3-column layouts. I took the post as more of a “Why are we designing sites this way? And are two sidebars actually helping? If not, rethink the design.”

7. Vuel Egham2007/12/11 @ 15:54

   I prefer the 3 column. If they wanted to do two, they should have the navigation column on the left.

   I find his design less useful, since there are two columns within his right nav column, which makes no sense to me.

   What Apple should do is use Omniture A/B or Multivariate testing and get some objective data about which layout is more usable and converts better.