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.

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?

Images at the source page

Dictionary entry

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
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

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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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