The End of the Masthead
Posted August 25, 2007
Filed under: Social network, UX, Usability, design, masthead, page header, ribbon |
Filed under: Social network, UX, Usability, design, masthead, page header, ribbon |
So I made this new masthead for our Social Network Site™ and I came to wonder what a masthead has to contain, look like and why it needs to be there at all.
I guess you’re fast to reply that a site needs an identity and a clear owner. You’re probably right, but who doesn’t get tired of those page headers containing a logo, a search field, some log in/log out stuff and a top navigation bar? UI standards are always good because the users knows them and knows where to look for things like navigation. But it feels like the Web 2.0, community and social network sites hasn’t come up with much news for mastheads. Look at digg, del.icio.us, facebook, twitter, and flickr. Maybe it is time for a ribbon paradigm shift for the web too?
If you’re up for it, and you think it won’t hurt usability, why not have a go?
Screens keep getting wider, not higher. With the traditional masthead at the top of the page the content area gets even more flattened out.
I am soo tired of all these sites with unreadable long lines (although you would never be found guilty of having done that) and so far I have only seen one attempt at automatically splitting the text up in columns. It was a bit messy to read as the lines were re-arranged as soon as you changed the window size. You remember who it was? NYT?
Hurray for the masthead to the left and content at the top!
I just hate designers that must be so innovative all the time. Why can’t you just have a regular masthead so that you users know what to do on your site?
So where will you place the search field then, I guess you cannot have it as a vertical field to the left
Nope, but there is a column to the right where it can go.