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July 11, 2006

Posted by Shane

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Rated 7.8 from 34 votes

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The Horizontal Way

The Horizontal Way

The Horizontal Way is the first site in a long time to grab my attention and interest me enough to tempt me back on multiple occasions just to look at and play with. I’ve always been a big fan of unconventional designs and this horizontal scrolling idea (although not exactly new) is simply something you rarely see on the internet nowadays (unless it’s done by mistake — or because of designers who ignore 800×600 users and force them to scroll *safety wink*). It’s something I’ve played with in the past and will definitely be experimenting with again in the future now that my appetite for a horizontal challenge has been whetted.

The design itself is very pretty –- utilizing the grungy & worn look that was popular early on last year, but managing to make it feel fresh and light at the same time — with use of the white content areas and soft blues that contrast nicely against the damaged black border.

There are also the nice and unusual little touches I always like to see in people’s web designs, such as the OVERlining of links in each of the content sections (something I haven’t seen anywhere before), and animated background gifs used in the main navigation. Usually I’m not a fan of animated elements flashing, blinking and distracting me — but in this instance I think it works? However, my favourite part of the design is what most people will probably find annoying — which is the vertical text underneath the logo and again in the footer. I actually LIKE the fact that it made me want to turn my head to the side and make an effort just to read some completely random words written above a toucan and chimpanzee?! I may be on my own in liking absurd and random things like that though…

Having a brief look at the code it seems tight enough, although there’s always going to be room for improvement in any site. You currently receive a script error in Internet Explorer, although this doesn’t seem to affect the usage of the site –- and the only other blatant problem was that images didn’t have height and widths defined, causing the footer to sometimes appear further left than it should and not flush with the right edge of the site in Firefox.

Overall, it’s one of my favourite sites of the year, and one which I will be visiting frequently over the coming months to enjoy yet more like it that get featured in its gallery.

Chris Williams is a good friend of Unmatched Style and runs Chris Williams Design in the small town of Chesterfield, Derbyshire in the UK.

Add Your OpinionMore Opinions on The Horizontal Way

  1. Nate KJuly 11, 200610:35 pm

    I would disagree with your initial review. I didn’t like this at all. Not so much the design, but horizontal scrolling. I just have to ask myself - WHY? What is the purpose? To be different? How many people would really understand this or prefer horizontal scrolling? I haven’t done studies - so I can’t say for sure, but I would bet it would be a low number.

    So - while the design is nice, I think that it is TOO unconventional.

  2. Brady J. FreyJuly 12, 20067:30 pm

    I’ve always been annoyed with horizontal scrolling, as well as most users - it’s something we always teach as a no no. The color scheme is enjoyable, I’ve always enjoyed a light bluish tone on cream - my only bugs:
    1) javascript right doesn’t work in some browsers consistently for me
    2) animated gifs don’t fly in safari (not so sure about older browsers anymore) - I love them but almost never use them because of this, though it is a nice feature

    I agree the code is clean, though a bit of divitis, we can forgive that since it’s a wordpress norm:) a nicely designed site, but the horizontal browsing will always kill it for me and I won’t visit again, sorry to say.

  3. Brady J. FreyJuly 13, 200610:30 am

    Scratch that, Animated gif backgrounds are working perfectly fine, I was in test safari mode with an older version - sorry about that! And I thought I knew what I was talking about:)…

  4. AmranJuly 15, 20069:56 am

    I like the colour usage but I don’t like the horizontal scrolling. There is a reason why all application run on vertical and not horizontal.

    It is bad for your head, ie make you headache if you scroll horizontal too much and seriously, you are limiting yourself with such horizontal design.

    Overall I like the colour but hate the horizontal concept.

  5. matt keoghAugust 21, 20067:13 am

    why horizontal? - it would seem a bit strange having a horizontal showcase site that wasn’t horizontal.

    Should we use horizontal designs - I think for personal sites or maybe smaller sites where there isn’t that much content. If you have a site that someone is going to visit and read from daily then I’d say it is a no no but this does stand out (at the moment). I don’t think that there are that many people out there unable to use it ( I may be wrong though).

  6. birdNovember 27, 200710:40 am

    I love these people that “no-no” things because they’ve been told to “no-no” them. “I WON’T look at horizontal scrolling!” said Grumpy Smurf. WTF?

    If it makes a few web designers feel more confident to have things to “no-no”, I suppose it’s all for the best. But the average viewer thinks that site is interesting. I’d put money on it. Urban Outfitters has been doing it successfully.

  7. Alvin.CJanuary 14, 200810:12 am

    Don’t be fazed by the comments. I personally feel that the work u have here breaks the convention.

    Like what bird has pointed out, the conventional mindset is present because people believe what they are told. Who is right to judge a technique as a “no-no” method.

    It’s really nice to see you break the norm.

  8. TobiasFebruary 20, 20085:25 am

    I like the horizontal design very much, just because of the unconventionality. I also think it could be very practical. The new thing (for the past two years or so) in monitorland has been widescreen. I know it’s best to design your site with the few(?) 800×600 readers in mind.
    I can’t wait to view (and implement on my site) a more or less standard wordpress theme which has its post horizontal.

  9. stephanieMay 27, 20109:17 am

    hi, nice theme!:) doesn’t work:( says;”no template found”…?
    thnx
    s.

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