User blog comment:Dammej/A glimpse of the future (of the wiki)/@comment-737801-20100927144758/@comment-1074875-20100927165320

I don't know what studies Wikia refer to, but generally speaking short lines are much easier to read then long ones. The big issue they're missing is the problem with content length - for example: this layout could enhance an article like Emporium but will make articles with greater content length like Mass Effect Guide extremely cluttered and almost impossible to read.

Talk pages with long discussions will be impossible to read - the nesting will cause the text to be out of context.

There is a large debate regarding menu position, some believe that horizontal menu at the top of the page is more immediately noticeable, and others believe that the user should see the content first thing without the need to scroll to see it (more likely on lower resolutions and hand-held devices) - up until now, I haven't found a conclusive evidence or consensus for either.

I didn't see this mentioned (although I haven't read the entire discussion) but there is a belief regarding sidebar location. It is believed that on left-to-right languages, the sidebar should be located on the right for easier reading (when reading any text document, the eye will automatically go to the top-left of the page), and to the opposite side on right-to-left languages. But I have no idea if this was even considered when Wikia decided on the sidebar location.

There are many studies regarding usability, readability, and other aspects of web-design that deal with the presentation of content, I have no idea what Wikia included in their consideration.