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

[Dave Collins]

I have not seen any research, but I would argue strongly that functional
(i.e. left-weighted) is much more desired than aesthetically pleasing
(centred). This isn't poetry we're creating.

I suspect the reason left-weighted is more functional, particularly for web
pages, is that the content is not read, it is scanned. Only the bare minimum
of a text block, paragraph, sentence, phrase or even word is scanned by the
eye/brain - just enough to rule it out as the piece of information sought.
That means the eye will continually return to the left far, far more often
than in any other type of reading. Anything that speeds this process up is
good.


Dave Collins
User Interface Design
Phoenix Interactive
4th floor, 137 Dundas St,
London ON, N6A 1E9
V: 519.679.2913 x292
F: 519.679.6773
E: dcollins at phoenix-interactive.com


-----Original Message-----
From: lcarter3 at gmu.edu [mailto:lcarter3 at gmu.edu] 
Sent: Tuesday, November 25, 2003 10:47 AM
To: sigia-l at asis.org
Subject: [Sigia-l] Visual Balance vs. Left Leaning Layouts

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

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