[Sigia-l] Left-hand nav

[Paola Kathuria]

A gillion (i.e., 11) years ago, I posted to this list in a thread
on upside-down L navigation*. This is when global nav is along
the top and local nav is in the left-hand column.

I'd been advocating for putting *content* before navigation. That
is, local nav on the right.

Assumptions:

a) (in left-to-right reading) the left-hand side is more
important that the right

b) content is more important than navigation (you can have a
semi-useful site without navigation but not one with content)

c) people click on links to get to content, not site navigation

d) when narrowing a browser, the navigation gets clipped
first, not the content - see (b)

e) site navigation is a like a steering wheel in that you can
move it to the other side and people will still recognise
its purpose by its design


In the intervening years, most sites now have right-hand local
navigation. But some still don't.

A company whose Twitter feed I am following recently announced
the launch of a client site redesign. It has local links on the
left. I @replied to ask why they favoured left-column nav. They
said that "on the whole" they had "no preference".

Why don't (some) web companies have a preference?

Does yours?


Paola
--
http://www.paolability.com/


[*] http://www.info-arch.org/lists/sigia-l/0011/0059.html