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

[Boniface Lau]

> From: sigia-l-admin at asis.org [mailto:sigia-l-admin at asis.org]On
> Behalf Of Samantha Bailey
[...]
> > 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

With English text flowing from left to right, a left navigation
bar is more robust.

A right navigation bar can get pushed to the far right and therefore
creating a big gap with the text which gathered mainly on the left
due to the left to right text flow. This problem is much more acute
when displaying a liquid design on a high resolution large screen
display.


Boniface