[Sigia-l] Visual Balance vs. Left Leaning Layouts

[lcarter3 at gmu.edu]

What is more important for a task oriented web page
design (not a marketing or art site) & how do you
choose:

1) The layout of the text & graphics shows the
information hierarchy but putting the subordinate
concepts below & perhaps indented  indented under
superordinate concepts (like in an outline or tree
view).

2) The display be visually balanced (not to much
optical weight on one side
or the other)?  For example, if you have a web page
with a vertical nav area
down the left and align all text and buttons to the
left inside the content
area, the page looks unbalances because there's too
much on the left.

Has anyone seen any research on support either idea
or any research
comparing these design goals?


Leslie Carter, PhD
George Mason University
Instructional Design & Development