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

[Samantha Bailey]

Hi,


> Therefore, first sticking a navigation in the user's face (as with the
> left-hand navigation) suggests some interaction is primary, assuming a
> common left-to-right eye tracking pattern.
>
> I might be missing a piece of the puzzle there. Any comments?


I suspect it's less a case of a conscious desire to dominate the page by
sticking the navigation in the user's face and has more to do with the fact
that in the early days of web design it was customary to design the default
(i.e., must see elements to use the page) for a 640X480 screen with the idea
that the content could then drift over to the right (or even have secondary
content in the right rail) with the idea that users would have some kind of
"draw" attracting them to scroll horizontally should that be necessary.
Which trended to a de facto standard. Even though larger screen resolutions
have become the norm, the tendency has stuck.

I think the discussion here has been really enlightening and I've
appreciated the comments about the Audi site, the various accessibility
issues, etc. I'd like to see us continue to discuss navigation placements
and treatments.

sb