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

[Welie, Martijn van]

From: James Kalbach [mailto:kalbach at scils.rutgers.edu]
> [Jon Hanna wrote:]
> > matches a read-content-then-go-elsewhere usage
> > pattern to LTR reading
> 
> Exactly. From all of the tests we performed with the Audi websites, I
> believe this to be most important benefits from the 
> right-hand navigation.

Although this reasoning does not seem bad at first sight, I don't think it
is as simple as that. Especially at the new Audi website there are many
aspects that compromise the user experience. I personally don't like the
right-hand navigation at all. The way the subnavigation then grows from
right to left feels even more weird, at least at the audi.de site. Try the
site with a fullscreen browser, like I use, and you'll find the navigation
to be miles away from the content. It breaks the link between content and
navigation.

Having said that, I like to throw in some other considerations:
- Putting navigation left indeed puts more emphasis on the navigation. In
some cases where the users are not very familiar with the site's content,
this is exactly what you want. It communicates what there is to find and how
it is structured. In other cases this may be less important and you can
decide to have users focus on the main content. So it is not about whether
right or left is better, it is about what you want to achieve.
- Right navigation remains dangerous because of the fact that it easily
appears out of sight, depending how you have (not) coded the behavior of
navigation. With the Audi site they have tried to solve it but I think it is
clearly still problematic to say the least. Further more, if windows are
moved users move them down or to the right (or both) of the screen. This
leads to the fact that navigation is (again) out of sight....Top left is
simply the safest option.

Regards,

Martijn van Welie