Single-Serving Site

シングルサービング・サイト / 2008– / Layout / Reading on the Web

A site made of a single page on its own domain that does exactly one thing. Jason Kottke gave the form its name in February 2008, and around four hundred readers wrote in with examples, which is how it settled into a recognised type. There is no navigation and nowhere to go next: the answer fills the screen and that is the whole site.

Single-Serving Site — AI-generated interpretation 1 — AI-generated interpretation, not a reference work

Single-Serving Site — AI-generated interpretation 2 — AI-generated interpretation, not a reference work

Single-Serving Site — AI-generated interpretation 3 — AI-generated interpretation, not a reference work

At a glance

Visual cues

The domain name is the question and the page holds nothing but the one word answer
No heading and no paragraph, just one word or one image occupying the middle of the screen
No menu, no search and no footer links, so there is nowhere the visitor can go next
Titles that can be answered yes or no, in the manner of Is It Christmas? and Is Twitter Down?

Best used for

Building a page that answers one question, by putting the answer in the middle as a single word and cutting everything else
Publishing a notice or a status readout on its own domain as one page with no header and no footer

Use this style

Take the compact brief into a project or hand the structured version to an AI tool.

design.md image prompt JSON API MCP & machine access Compose

open in ChatGPT open in Claude open in Google AI

Detailed guidance and sourcesProduction rules, reference works, comparisons, research and citation formats

Dictionary entry

Type: Blow the answer up to the width of the viewport. One typeface, and no other text anywhere on the page.
Composition: One page, one screenful, nothing below the fold. A single element in the centre and margin everywhere else.
Material: A flat background colour. No ornament and no layering; when the answer changes, only the word or the colour swaps.
Caution: Keeping it to one page but adding explanatory copy, share buttons and related links breaks the only rule that matters, and what is left is just a short landing page.
Further study: opening the February 2008 kottke.org list itself, and the ratio of those still alive to those gone / comparing how the screen is built for titles answered yes or no and for those that are not / how far the domain name and the words shown on screen overlap, checked across a few examples

Related entries

Web 1.0 (ウェブ1.0)Shared effects: Play / Rebellion.Compare Single-Serving Site and Web 1.0
Web Brutalism (ウェブ・ブルータリズム)Shared effects: Rebellion.Compare Single-Serving Site and Web Brutalism

Cite this entry

The dictionary is meant to be linked to. Take whichever form fits where you are writing.

Link: https://indexstyle.org/styles/single-serving-site
Markdown: [Single-Serving Site — IndexStyle](https://indexstyle.org/styles/single-serving-site)
HTML: <a href="https://indexstyle.org/styles/single-serving-site">Single-Serving Site — IndexStyle</a>

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