Recently a site I use every day to read electronic books changed its format.

It now looks like the following:

At first that may not look that bad, but please keep in mind that readers are coming to this site for Content.

Now, take a look at this diagram which is the same page but highlighting all the non-content areas.

Now the user's eyes jump all around the page looking for content.

Scrolling In a Time of No Scrollbars

Scrollbars have been downplayed in recent design, but these designers have now forced the user to scroll even more. It doesn't make sense. This UI Design is creating a bad UX (user experience).

Bottom Right For Next Page

The designers also moved the [Next Page] link from the upper right (which made logical sense) to the lower right of the page. That's not a great location.

Two ToolBars

Previously there was only one toolbar but now there are two taking up even more screen space.

Do You Think This Is Good Design?

Can anyone explain why this is good design? It seems that many sites are moving to this format (less content shown).

Is this simply a marketing ploy to force users to interact more with the page (by forcing them to scroll and move around the page)?

Or, is this just following some new uninformed guide on how to create "better" design?

Possibly it is just change for change's sake. Just new. Not better.

What Do You Think?

What do you think? Do you like this format?