Making the Simple Complicated
So, I’ve been working on my flagship website. It started out simple. All I needed to do was to take the template from my eCommerce site, tweak it a bit and put it on my flagship website. Then, just get some new content, and I’d be up and running!
Of course, I decided to add some new features while I’m at it, and change the design a little bit.
I started with a navigation bar across the top as well as on the side. I have it that way on my eCommerce site. Across the top are the primary categories, so you can quickly jump to a certain section. Down the side is a more detailed list of categories and subcategories. It may sound repetitious, but it actually works out pretty nicely.
But, not so much on the flagship website. The eCommerce site has just a handful of links across the top. The flagship website would have had 11 links across the top, and they are longer names too. In one browser, it splits into two lines instead of one; in another browser, it gets cut off where it exceeds one line.
On top of that, in the latest redesign, I also have the 9 main categories in the body of the first page. So, lots of overload on navigation on the front page.
I decided to drop the top navigation. Instead, I put the site slogan there, which is short and, despite that, Firefox still cuts it off. Argh!
Anyway, aside from the Firefox issue, the navigation situation is resolved. Now, on to the body of the page… Previously, I had three columns: a navigation sidebar, content and another sidebar with additional stuff. Worked well. At the moment, I have divided the content portion into three columns of its own, which makes for a five column layout across the page.
It works out layout-wise, since there are nine categories, so I have three columns and three rows to cover those nine categories. If I go to two columns, then I would have five rows, the last of which would have a blank space, unless I put up an ad in a column in the first row, which might be an option.
The next question is whether or not to include links to other websites. I thought initially that it would be a good idea, but now I’m questioning that. A theme of the site is reducing information overload, so while having links to other sites makes my site a destination/portal, doesn’t that also tend to add to the information overload rather than reduce it? On the other hand, if I stick with sites that aren’t too “heavy” then maybe that still might work.
I think I’ll sleep on it. Feel free to leave your opinions in the comments. Thanks!
Less Is More.
However, I am famous for making simple things into giant complicated messes.
Since my husband is a web developer I understand the madness involved in the fact that there are so many browsers and don’t forget updated versions….
I too am fairly good at making simple things much more complicated. I have written several programs that start out simple, but end up becoming incredibly complicated/big.
My problem is I always think “Man, it would be cool if it did ___ too,” which while usually a neat feature, often ends up adding a lot of work.