When should I use a single-column and multi-column timeline feed?

What kind of content are you presenting?

Take a look at Facebook feed and Pinterest feed.

Facebook feed presents a variety of content—text, images, videos whose purpose are to update the users of current events and happenings in their friends’ lives.

Pinterest feed, on the other hand, presents content heavy on images—eye candy if you may.

So for timely content like news, it’s best to present it linearly (single–column) beginning from the most relevant and recent.

For content meant to be browsed or scanned, it’s best to present it all at the same time (multi–column), of course also beginning from the most relevant to the user.

Relevance is key.

Originally published in Quora