[Sigia-l] Right Side Navigation

[Jonathan Baker-Bates]

Doesn't the question of whether to have a left or right hand nav depend on
what that nav has in it?

If it's "look at me!!" style stuff (e.g. "Shop", "Downloads" rather than
"Related articles", "Complaints" etc.) then perhaps left is better since
people read left to right. Left has a "priority" over right a bit like top
has a priority over bottom (and - red herring fans - that's also the
priority that's used to look up Chinese characters in a dictionary).

However, you might want people to concentrate on the content of the page. So
maybe right nav is better for that, as it lets the content stand out more.
Hence the blog examples here.

At least, I see it that way. Personally, I prefer right navs since I'm right
handed. It's like pulling a slot machine lever or using a scroll bar. Left
navs feel like I'm crossing over the screen to get to them.

But what would really cure this is some user testing (ducks) ;-)

Jonathan



> -----Original Message-----
> From: sigia-l-admin at asis.org [mailto:sigia-l-admin at asis.org] 
> On Behalf Of Pabini Gabriel-Petit
> Sent: 06 July 2004 09:17
> To: donna at maadmob.net; sigia-l
> Subject: Re: [Sigia-l] Right Side Navigation
> 
> Hi Donna
> 
> I just checked out your blog layout, which as you say is 
> fairly typical of blogs. It holds up pretty well--that is, it 
> works at a reasonably narrow window width. However, if I make 
> my browser window too narrow, first the navbar disappears, 
> then the layout breaks. Your layout actually works much 
> better than the Boxes and Arrows layout. Fortunately, their 
> navigation is at the top of the page, but the content in 
> their sidebar on the right apparently disappears when the 
> window is fairly wide--it's actually down at the bottom of 
> the page, past the end of the content--and the layout breaks 
> horribly when the window is just a bit narrower.
> 
> BTW... I've really enjoyed some of your articles on Boxes and Arrows.
> 
> Pabini
> 
> Donna Maurer wrote:
> > My blog (http://maadmob.net/donna/blog/), and many others, 
> have right nav.
> It's fluid and it
> > works. What does the browser rendering direction have to do 
> with anything?
> Boniface Lau wrote:
> > >When the browser rendering direction is left to right, it goes 
> > >against the grain of fluid design to have right navigation bar.
> 
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