Fynmark.org beyond everything

Wordpress Theme Design Evolution

Every now and then, there's a dramatic or even subtle change in something. Often it's trivial, or unnoticeable, but it's a change none the less, and the latest change is important.

I'm not going to steal Dan's thunder and write a copy post, both these posts spark from a discussion we had on MSN last night and several nights before, weeks I think actually, on the subject of sidebars. Dan makes a great argument on the subject of jam-packed overflowing sidebars here. Check it out, it's a good article. And if you're wondering, I read his article in the middle of writing this one, and revised the intro as seen here. Most of what follows was written before I read the above link. And I've already stated how these two posts originated, or at least mine has.

Get on with it

As theme designing goes, sidebars were an amazing feature for a time. I know I'm joining the ranks of CSS/HTML coders fairly late, but I knew of Wordpress and other blogging engines before that, and cared about website design before that, too.

Sidebars offered many different things to be available for the reader in one neat little column. What the most popular post by comments? X is. How many days has this author posted on this month? And which ones? Calendar time. Who's commented the post often? Y has. The list goes on and on.

Unfortunately the features been going towards ads, stupid features, and generally downhill. This popular little hotspot in a design for viewers to see has turned into the part of town that people tend to avoid. Why not move someplace more pleasant. Vacant even, and turn it into a thriving, but humble district.

Why, Let's move to the overlooked part of Town!

No, not a left sidebar.

No, not an "above" sidebar, yuck.

NO, not a right sidebar, we were just there!

Don't get discouraged, just listen but a minute more. 1 more minute is all I ask. Please? Thank you!

Footerbar.

Footerbar - Incorporated since Waldwork

When I first attempted web design, I got in a bit deep. I designed a nice looking design, but I ignored the sidebar not because of ugliness or reasons stated above, actually. For not knowing how, to be honest.

As I've learned in my theme Paru-Kartin, sidebars can be finicky to code, some fixes not always working. So in my first design I used a footerbar. Pure laziness.

This nice little trick made Waldword a content-based design: mostly text in the main body, for articles and such primarily. This is just what I wanted, and what footerbars deliver.

Your Content and Your SideContent

Your content should always be the priority. People go to your site to see what you've written, and look at what you're displaying. Not to click ads, not to see who's commented most. All that should be read after the content.

And with that nice transition, I can say sidebars suck. Readers read left to right, yes? Correct. The sidebar is on the side, yes? Correct. When reading left to right you will look at the sidebar, yes? Correct. And with that readers become distracted. They get diverted to other sites, not staying on yours. From the Fynmarkian Dictionary started pre-Fynmark.org in 2008, on Fynmark 1, "sidecontent - content that is secondary to the main content, or plainly 'content.'"

Yes, I wrote that just now, but there was a Fynmark Dictionary. Full of animating terms, forum terms, and things the staff and I - actually Sliferz and I - threw in. But that doesn't mean it isn't true. Your page should go header >> content >> sidecontent. Not Header >> content > sidecontent > content > sidecontent > content > sidecontent.

It makes sense now to put the sidebar junk in your footer, now, right? Your latest Tweets, your Flickr feed, your tags and categories, even 125 square ads. It just makes sense.

Conclusion

You may notice I have a sidebar. Honestly, I hate it. But I can't find a good looking theme that has a footerbar, or even many crappy themes with footerbars. So I'm slowly designing my own, and hope eventually I'll learn to code it. The design I have so far is original, displaying my interests in the header, followed by content, followed by sidecontent and general footer stuff. Maybe I'll give you guys a peak. So far it's on paper, so no PNG image yet. Just rough ideas being thrown down.

I wrote this post on how the sidebar got clogged up and how now the footer's a viable, discreet home for the junk to go to, leaving the content free to be read and enjoyed. Hopefully soon I'll get a good footerbar theme. Now record another page, you god damned bot. If you're human, share your thoughts below.