[Sigia-l] potential challenge to the dominance of the left nav bar in local navigation

[Samantha Bailey]

Just came across this on Tomalak and think it's worth paying attention to
from an IA/ID and UI perspective. The critical point to note is that they
are changing their UI to accommodate this (this being an effort to give more
screen real estate to ads, similar to in the print world). According to the
article the plan is to move their local nav from the left to the top. If
this proves successful it could have a significant impact on the defacto
conventions that have grown up around the left nav (and if it's not
successful that could also suggest that the left nav dominance in UI design
is really here to stay, although that's a bit more of a reach).

Wall Street Journal: New York Times' Web Site Plans Print-Like Ad Format.
The New York Times' Web site will begin displaying half-page magazine-style
ads adjacent to its articles, making its online pages appear more similar
to their print counterparts.
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/0,,SB1044045107442450944,00.html

Thoughts?


Samantha Bailey
samantha at baileysorts.com | http://baileysorts.com