Website with separate pages or page-less design? Which is more effective?

Here are some examples using the old and new versions of a website. The older style used pages and a preprocessor, the new design has moved to a standard HTML5 code and page-less design. Same content, same graphics, different layout and navigation. Which is better in your opinion?


Here is an example of a standard site:
www.theocraticamerica.org...
Here is an example of a page-less site:
www.theocraticamerica.org...

Personally, I hate sites that are one long page that require you to scroll through endlessly. I think they look horrible and am very likely to not return to a page-less site after the first visit.

a reply to: XPensiveTrash

I think the first design is better. On the second it begins to look a jumbled mess and would have the effect of losing ones place when reading because it so abrubtly jumps from one area to the next. for example if one is looking to contact you but keeps seeing the donation options below they could develop a negative opinion of not only the site but the sites intent.

a reply to: XPensiveTrash

I think the first design is better. On the second it begins to look a jumbled mess and would have the effect of losing ones place when reading because it so abrubtly jumps from one area to the next. for example if one is looking to contact you but keeps seeing the donation options below they could develop a negative opinion of not only the site but the sites intent.

Software dev here, for this kind of site I much prefer a single page. Informational sites benefit greatly from the user not having to click through to other pages to get to the info, because they probably won't.

Most likely what I would do, is a combination of both, so that you can avoid the endless scroll that XPensiveTrash mentioned. Like have the main page with all your info and a section with the newest/most popular articles with links to each article on their own page as well as a link to another page with the full list of articles.

a reply to: Theocracy4America

It totally depends upon what you want to do and which technology you want to use.

As long as the website is useful and secure. It's just a matter of personal taste.

Infinite scrolling is #

medium.com...

a reply to: Theocracy4America

For the index or default page I think the 2nd design works best because everything is visible on one page. After clicking a link on the default page, the first design might work best.

Imagine clicking on ATS's "forums" link and not seeing all forums but instead you have to click "Next" 5 times. Sometimes less is more and sometimes more is less. I think.

a reply to: Theocracy4America

It depends on the site.

If there isn't a great volume of content, why spread the 'tiny little bit' everywhere making it hard to get at it all.

If there is a lot of volume, it makes sense to allow navigation because not everyone will want to read through information that is probably largely irrelevant to them. But you can still go over the top and wreck your site (think about how bad ATS would be if every post got a new page. Following a thread would be hell).

Also some frames and weird site structures often mess with the ability for search optimization, so you'll end up not getting a good ranking. For a public or commercial site, that's death.