A Short Page Layout Rant

Stumbled upon this just now. Don’t click it unless you want to see a horribly designed page.

I would like to read this article, but I can’t. I find it impossible. Here’s the short on why:

First: Ads above the title bury the content to below the fold on most wide-screen monitors.

Second, and more importantly: This type of arrowed navigation tends to indicate some form of display applet that does not exist. Each click of the arrow loads a complete new page, positioned at the top, so I then have to scroll again to find the content buried under the header ads.

I know this particular click-through style is used to increase page-views, but I’m asking designers to give it a rest. If the content is worth the effort, it will generate traffic on its own.