Blog design trends: the content-rich footer

January 23, 2006

As a follow-up to my blog design trends post, I’m feeling a need to change “big footer” to:

The content-rich footer

Instead of cluttering up the sidebar, why not remove it completely, or keep the main items on there but move everything else to the footer region, organised nicely in multiple columns?

This way, you’ll still have any important links up the top in a sidebar (or, in a top menu) and if a person has scrolled/read down to the bottom of your blog entries, they’re presented with a set of options right there to earlier content, related links etc. They’re at the bottom most likely because they’re interested in reading more. Otherwise, they’ll get to the bottom of the page, and all those sidebar links you were hoping they’d click on are most likely out of sight. They’ll have to scroll back up to see them.

Examples include:

Viatrax, If Else, Business Logs, Dennis Bullock, Andry Huzain, Juque, Ordered List, Shaun Andrews, Subtraction.

See also
Comments

  1. Thanks for the feedback Rachel…….always looking for it.

    — Dennis Bullock, January 23, 2006

  2. i think they are the next generation!

    — Stephan L., January 24, 2006

  3. Rachel, I’m going to finally do my own full CSS layout, do you mind me using some of the tips from your blog trends posts and this? I will be doing it from scratch so not copying anything, just your tips, esspecially this one are really good.

    — Pete..., January 24, 2006

  4. Oh please do! The comment about the guy stealing code is no way connected to learning, being inspired by, even reusing ideas. He just copied the entire code :S

    — Rachel, January 24, 2006

  5. Hehe, Thanks Rachel, I will get to it. I’m like a wide eyed schoolboy with all these ideas and tips…

    — Pete..., January 24, 2006

  6. I used to put my recent-links/quicklinks at top of my page. For returning reader, it’s ok, but first time reader will found such ’structure’ tends to be very confusing.

    And then I saw Garret Dimmon, If Else, and BusinessLogs’ “footer”, and start to redesign my newly blog (I used WP, now TxP convert) using such structure.

    Second, it’s about speed. Doing a lot of query in sidebar is not always the best choice.

    That’s my take. Thank you Rachel for putting this up together :)

    — andry, January 24, 2006

  7. [...] 大的é ?首其實還蠻常見的，WordPressçš„Kubrick佈景主題就是很經典的例å­?。至於將é ?å°¾æ??高，置入導覽的內容，å?°è±¡ä¸­Powazek的這篇文章應該算是é‡?è¦?的里程碑。 1/24補記：Rachel後來將big footer這一項修改為「the content-rich footerã€?，鼓勵blogger將較早的文章（earlier content）或是相關連çµ?（related links）放到é ?尾裡é?¢ã€‚因為訪客們如果會閱讀到文章的最後é?¢ï¼Œè¡¨ç¤ºä»–們較å?¯èƒ½æƒ³å?¸æ”¶æ›´å¤šè³‡è¨Šã€‚所以ä¸?妨把放在å?´é‚Šæ¬„（sidebar）中的部份資訊挪到這裡，方便他們閱讀。 [...]

    — Idea Grapes » 2006å¹´çš„7個blog設計趨勢, January 25, 2006

  8. [...] Update: See this follow-up post: The Content-Rich Footer [...]

    — Blog Design Trends — cre8d design blog, January 25, 2006

  9. another fine example of fine footers is derek powazek’s site: http://www.powazek.com/

    i think a few of the examples you listed (including myself) were pretty inspired by derek’s work.

    great blog by the way :)

    — evan, January 26, 2006

  10. Thanks Evan, that’s a nice site too!

    — Rachel, January 26, 2006

  11. [...] 1/24補記：Rachel後來將big footer這一項修改為「the content-rich footer�，鼓勵blogger將較早的文章（earlier content）或是相關連�（related links）放到�尾裡�。因為會閱讀到文章�尾的人，表示他們較�能想�收更多資訊。所以�妨把放在�邊欄（sidebar）中的部份資訊挪到這裡，方便他們閱讀。 [...]

    — MIT IEM 36 _v4.0_xoops_ - WordPress, February 1, 2006

  12. My site (www.shaunandrews.com) has been redesigned, and sad to say, but the content-rich footer is no more.

    — Shaun Andrews, July 15, 2006