Page Layout

Page Organization

From a visual perspective, make sure that the main content is visible near the top of the page, without any scrolling. The site navigation features should be visible as well. It is sometimes difficult to balance the size requirements of the site navigational features with those of the main content. This is where artistic innovation comes into play. Try to squeeze down the navigational features as much as possible, without making them illegible or unusable. Give as much space to the main content as possible. Consider the main areas of the visual space. Menu and navigational features may be appropriate along the top, the sides, and perhaps even the bottom (for menu items of lesser importance). Test your layout on people who have never seen the layout before. Pay attention to how they interact with the pages, and listen carefully to their criticism. A few changes here and there may make a world of difference to the end user.

Provide a way to quickly get to the main content

People using the keyboard or keyboard-emulation devices appreciate being able to skip past the navigational menu system, so that they can jump directly to the main content of the page. Imagine listening to, or tabbing through, a list of 13 items on every page before arriving at the pages' main content. It can be quite tiring.

Table Layout

Purists will say that table layout is inappropriate. In reality it is, although some will argue that there is no other method to reliably achieve the same layout effects. Style sheets are the real answer, but browser support is less than it really ought to be. Table layouts often take longer to load than content outside of tables.

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