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

[Smith, Denise (Hewitt)]

<snipping>

That's perilously close to a circular argument. First you need to accept the
Nielsenian dictate that the navbar ought to be on the left and then get
agitated when it moves to the top, albeit for a marketing reason. If you
accept the notion that the navbar should be wherever a specific project
naturally dictates, then there's no reason to panic :-) For instance, I
rarely consider left or right navbars when designing a intranet with a lot
of tables, as I need most of the horizontal real estate.

Best,

Ziya
<snip>

Good point about the intranets - and probably for any seriously content
heavy-site. I've found sites that are e-commerce based "solution selling
models" (ie: they aren't just selling a product, but also are selling either
services, consulting or other "value-adds") tend to need a softer, more
organic feel (to replicate the feeling of human interaction?) so less
structure, rigid home pages (right hand nav or even no "intrinsic" nav at
all") seem to work better. The most important goal to me has always been to
allow users to feel comfortable to explore the information in front of them,
and hopefully have it be a fun process.