WEB 2.0 Footers – How to keep peoples flow
One thing I’ve noticed recently is how some websites have decided to use footers as a way to keep people browsing their website.If you read a long article on a website, once you reach the bottom of the page, you arrive to a dead end. You have two options, maybe three if the website has been well thought and coded.
- First option, press back to go back to the previous page.
- Second option, scroll back up that lengthy article you’ve just read.
- Third option, if you are lucky, there will be a link at the bottom called ‘top’ or something similar that will bring you back up to the top of the page. The problem with this option is that if, once you’re back up at the top, you realize that there isn’t anything interesting on the page and you press the back button, you are not going to go back to the previous page, you are going back to the bottom of this page. Not very useful
What I call web 2.0 Footers are a new kind of footers that are emerging on leading websites. They are offering a solution to the usual dead end bottom of the page.
Instead of having a copyright, and maybe a link to the Agency/Freelancer who designed their website, they have links, forms and other information.
Example of a footer showing off Icons and Books by the same author.
Most of these websites are personal websites, generally blogs, so the common element appearing at the bottom of their pages will be a list of their recent other blog entries. They also haven links to websites they like: their bookmarks. Some also like to repeat their navigation, so you don’t have to scroll back up to see what else there is on their website, it’s right here under your eyes once you’ve finished reading their article.
Example of a footer listing other services offered by the company, as well as a link to get in touch with them.
Designers (freelancers or agencies) cleverly show off their work by including, on their portfolio pages, links to other projects they’ve worked on.
Example of a footer listing other projects the designer has been working on.
A great way to receive feedback, or get people to sign up to your newsletter would be to add a little form at the bottom of your articles. Imagine someone reading one of you articles, liking it a lot, and arriving at the end falls on a little form to sign up to your newsletter.
E-Commerce websites try to get customers feedback, try to help them by offering links to the Top 5 FAQs. They also tend to add all their contact details (email, postal address, phone, fax, have a form where you can enter your order number and track it.
Example of a footer on a E-Commerce website with a form to send feedback, a few links to their help pages, a form to track your order, and links to other pages.
The list of possibilities is only limited by your imagination, but the idea is to keep the visitor’s flow in your website.
Gaëtan wrote this on 22.06.06 – 9 comments
It's filed in the Development, Interesting, Internet box
On June 23rd, 2006 at 12:29 pm, GreenLantern responded:
Excellent article. It has inspired me to upgrade my footer.
On September 22nd, 2006 at 11:58 am, Ash responded:
Excellent. As usual N-M have the most interesting and informative blogs!
Ash
On October 5th, 2007 at 11:24 am, Phil responded:
It’s given me some ideas for a web 2 approach. Many thanks
On October 5th, 2007 at 8:15 pm, Surfer responded:
I’m still trying to master css so it’ll be a while before I can really make my footer look as good as the ones in this article.
On November 21st, 2007 at 6:41 pm, Whatever-ishere responded:
thanks for the GREAT post! Very useful…
On April 13th, 2009 at 11:27 am, How to Create Web 2.0 Site | Theme Heven responded:
[...] WEB 2.0 Footers – How to keep peoples flow [...]
On July 14th, 2009 at 2:22 am, Frank responded:
Great article! It really helped me with my design ideas.
On November 6th, 2009 at 1:57 pm, chupatop responded:
Thanks for the cool post!
On November 7th, 2009 at 8:54 pm, chupatop responded:
Thank you, there are some great ideas. Very insporational