So in this case, abusing columns may make your content a little more difficult to read but when used appropiately (as with any web design technique) it will come into it’s own.

Grid positioning, especially the column module is interesting because its importance is also arguable in the design industry. In an attempt to provide some valuable food for thought, I will throw in a comment questioning the value of multiple columns on the web. You have to look back at the reasons why the columns were first invented and used to really understand the context in which they serve their function properly.

Reading is tiring. It is much more tiring if the columns are very wide, or if there are no columns and the page is wide. Why is this? Because your eyes have to travel from the end of the line of text, to the beginning of the next line quite some distance. This isn’t a big deal at first, but after you read an article or two you will start to feel the strain. Newspapers realized this and split the text up into columns to improve readability. They wanted their content easy to digest so to speak. The limits of the physical page mean that columns are stacked horizontally. The web is a different affair—there are no limits to the vertical height, and so stacking columns horizontally may actually harm readability.

Roger Johansson of 456 Berea Street put it quite bluntly saying that: “Too many designers value ‘creativity’ above readability, usability, and accessibility. Using multiple columns in a print stylesheet may be useful, but onscreen, for longer articles? No. Face it, the Web is not a printed magazine.”

Note that I do not necessarily agree with Mr Johansson. One more crucial point to consider is the screen real estate. The computer monitor is not limitless, it only displays a certain amount of pixels at any given time, so if it’s necessary to fit something “above the fold”, then columns may be the right tool for the job. I think in the future, when this module is out, we just need to be a little bit careful about how we use it. Thinking back to the original context columns were used, analyzing your particular situation and then deciding whether columns are appropriate would make for more intelligent and strategic design. Anyways… sorry for the long comment, just wanted to throw some thoughts in :)