First off, welcome to the our new look web design blog (the sidebar isn’t quite complete yet - sorry!). The old free template has gone to be replaced by a new design matching our main website.

During the change we faced a dilemma, to go with 2 columns or 3? What is best for you, the user, and what is best for us?

As you can see we decided to go with 2 columns, although we originally did have 3. However the 3 column layout felt squashed and I hate it when the main body text on a website is thin so you are constantly scrolling down.

4 Main Reasons We Decided To Have 2 Columns:

• Larger main area for content improving user experience
• More focus on main content meaning more click-thru’s to latest posts
• Wider sidebar meaning space for wider and clearer adverts which is better for both users and advertisers
• Main category navigation easily accessible despite only having 1 column

Comparison With Main Website
Our main website - Free Stock Images - has 3 columns and we wanted the blog to have 3 columns so they both match. However we quickly realised the blog and main site have different needs, for both the user and advertiser.

Because they have different needs they obviously need different designs. The main site has a lot more pages for a start, and the way the sites generate revenue is also different so it made no sense to have exactly the same layout.

Conclusion
All sites have different needs and the design obviously has to reflect that for the site to reach its full potential. We went into this project thinking we just wanted to make the blog design exactly the same as our main website, it turns out that was not clever thinking! Now we meet everyones needs and have a blog which certainly stands out in the crowd!

Is your website layout maximising your potential?