March 26th, 2014
During some recent web design/development projects I noticed that several sites I was working on had a pretty large space at the top before the header area even began. I used to think this was a good thing because visitors could then see the site name at eyelevel - and thus be assured that they have indeed found the right site. I no longer think in most cases that this is the best design.
Presenting the site name at eyelevel may work for some sites, but if you look at a few popular sites, you'll notice that the site name is not really noticeable - what meets your eye first is the most important part of the page - usually the content. Again, this doesn't mean that some sites would be wrong to display their site name prominently, but for many sites, it's just not as important as other more crucial elements.
Having the site name at eyelevel - which arguably is the most important real estate of a web page - is a bit of a waste because visitors generally know that if they want to find a site name to look at the top of the page. Most users may even glance at this area when they first visit a site to make sure they're at the right place. Then, they begin to ignore it - because what they're really after is the content.
Also, having the site name at eyelevel on every page can be disastrous because again, visitors have already identified the site as being the one they want, now they want the content.
Let's think of this in terms of meeting someone at a social gathering. You meet a stranger and they provide their name. You begin to discuss work. The conversation changes to hobbies. Suddenly, this person feels the need to tell you their name again. Odd. You find out that with each new topic you touch upon they tell you their name again. Something tells me you won't enjoy this conversation too much. Most people just want to converse without every new subject introduced interrupted by a needless reminder of who you're talking to. Putting a site name in the way of the content the user wants has the same effect: it's annoying.
Further, if a visitor visits your site from a search engine, chances are they're not too interested in your name - unless they searched for your company specifically. But if they've reached your site while searching for "tech books" - you want to show them your tech books - the name of your site is at best of secondary importance at this point.
Reducing wasted web page real estate becomes more important when you consider the concept of "above the fold". Namely, that the content that a visitor sees without scrolling is extremely important. This is due to the fact that studies have shown that visitors don't want to be scrolling all over the place - they want their content and they want it now.
Reducing wasted real estate on a webpage can improve that page's usefulness - especially when it affects what first greets visitors to your page.