I’m working on a new theme for a new blog. Now that I’m getting better at this, these things actually take a little longer. My latest themes don’t use sidebars or widgets at all. I try to build all of what the user needs into the theme itself.
When you’re making themes for yourself, and not other people, you actually find places where things should be, like the search box on this site. I don’t have sidebar on this site, I just put search into the header. And the latest posts are covered on the front page. I have a “more posts” page that is actually organized well.
I’m not saying this site is perfect, it’s a work in progress, but I used to be that guy with a sidebar filled with widgets. And after a while, I just found it very distracting. Sidebars, even on very professional new sites, just seem to be begging for clicks. Instead of begging, I want to anticipate what my users will actually want, and provide that, and nothing else.
Will there occasionally be people who are frustrated and can’t find what they want just one click away? Maybe, but maybe that’s ok. My sites are about giving people information, not shoving information down their throats. Even the best sites today beg the users to click on links and ads. What if you just give the user what they want instead?
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