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

[Peter Merholz]

(SNIPPING OUT OF ORDER)
> From: "Mary Wisnewski" <mary.wisnewski at nortelnetworks.com>

> I've always liked nav that adjusts & gets smaller, less obtrusive (often
by
> moving to the top of the page) as I get deeper into the content.

And I've always liked chocolate malts.

By which I mean, "So what?" Conversations like this are headed down the
wrong track when they get caught up in discussions of "what I like."

We need to understand *what works*, which, of course, is a squishy concept,
since measures of success vary from site to site, and project to project.

For the NYT, I'm guessing what works is some balance of
 - attracting more readers to the site
 - getting readers to come back through good editorial and straightforward
content design
and, most importantly
 - delivering eyeballs/mouseclicks to advertisers such that they are pleased
and keep giving the nice folks at the NYT money

> I think NYT is on the right track here.  Navigation does not have to be
> consistent throughout a site.

That's orthogonal to this discussion. We're not talking "consistency
throughout a site." We're talking adherence to an unwritten, but generally
agreed-upon, standard of interface design.

It would surprise me if the NYT's navigation were inconsistent throughout
the site. I'm guessing the top-nav will go on every page (with the possible
exception of the homepage).

I would argue that some part of the navigation, and likely some pretty
significant and big part of the navigation, ought to be consistent
throughout a site.

> It needs to accommodate my needs here on this
> page.  I would prefer to have the nav OUT OF THE WAY when reading
articles.

This, again, is a talk of "what I like," which can only muddy this
discussion. I've watched countless users view countless websites, and one
thing I realized is that users are very good at ignoring navigation. Which
means, for all intents and purposes, it *is* out of the way when reading
articles.

BUT, when the user has accomplished some goal, arrived at the end of
whatever intent drove them to the site, and they sit back and consider what
to do next, having that navigation, in a consistent place, a place that they
expect to find cues for moving on, well, that's probably a good thing.

--peter