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

[Luca Rosati]

Hi Samantha,

In Boxes and Arrows, a few months ago, appeared an article about the
redesign of Audi website. This the link
<http://www.boxesandarrows.com/archives/challenging_the_status_quo_audi_rede
signed.php>

Just regarding the main menu position, at the page 3 of the article, the
author write:

<blockquote>
Though there is research about expectations of the location of page elements
in a layout, such research does not correlate breaking these expectations
with actual usability (see: Michael Bernard,
http://www.internettg.org/newsletter/dec00/article_bernard.html and Jakob
Nielsen, http://www.useit.com/alertbox/991114.html). That is, while users
normally anticipate a left-hand navigation, positioning the navigation
elsewhere does not necessarily result in usability problems.

Don Norman's concept of affordance —the perceived properties of a thing that
determine how it is to be used —seems to be a better predictor of usability
than conforming to standards or matching patterns to user expectations. With
the Audi site, it is clear what is navigation and what is not. Users can
build a pattern of interaction with the site immediately. Our findings show
users have no problem distinguishing a right-justified navigation and tend
to make generalizations about its function.

</blockquote>
cf.
<http://www.boxesandarrows.com/archives/challenging_the_status_quo_audi_rede
signed.php?page=3>

I tend to agree to that point of view.
I think the Normanian concept of *affordance* is more effectiveness than
heuristics (expectations of the location of page elements in a layout).
Also for me (and my little experience) the crucial point is not the users
expectations, but the user capability to recognize an element as what it is,
by its function (*prceived affordance*).

I wrote about that a short article, but - sorry - it's in italian:
<http://www.idearium.it/nuke/article.php?sid=101>

Ciao, Luca



> -----Messaggio originale-----
> Da: sigia-l-admin at asis.org [mailto:sigia-l-admin at asis.org]Per conto di
> Samantha Bailey
> Inviato: mercoledì 5 febbraio 2003 16.49
> A: sigia-l
> Oggetto: [Sigia-l] potential challenge to the dominance of the left nav
> bar in local navigation
>
>
> 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
>
>
>
>
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