[Sigia-l] Left-hand nav

[Jacqui Olkin]

What a helpful post, Jim. Thanks!
 
Jacqui

Jacqui Olkin 
Olkin Communications Consulting 
jacqui at olkincommunications.com  
571-643-6020 ph. 
703-834-5653 fax 
Twitter: @OlkinComm
www.olkincommunications.com

web strategy, usability, information architecture, redesigns



 
> Date: Thu, 10 Mar 2011 23:33:26 +0100
> From: jim.kalbach at gmail.com
> To: sigia-l at asis.org
> Subject: Re: [Sigia-l] Left-hand nav
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> we did a quantitative study about 8 years ago on a left-hand versus
> right-hand navigation. See the peer-reviewed publication here:
> http://journals.tdl.org/jodi/article/view/94/93
> 
> <http://journals.tdl.org/jodi/article/view/94/93>Highlights:
> - People did seem to "get" the navigation scheme much in the way Poala
> desribes--like a turned steering wheel.
> - In general, our participants proved to be ambidextrous in using both
> navigation schemes (left or right)
> - However, the right hand navigation started performing FASTER than the left
> nav towards the end of our 5 tasks. The reason for this is Fitts Law, but
> not because right-handed people tend to pull the mouse to the right but
> because that's where the scroll bar is. So "scroll > right-nav > scroll >
> right-nav" was faster to do than "scroll > left-nav > scroll > left-nav."
> 
> Not reported in the above study, we also tested for where users' focus of
> attention was. We found more focus on the content with the right nav than
> when the navigation was on the left.
> 
> Of course, this was just one (very controlled) test and doesn't form a
> guideline itself. That is, we didn't conclude navigation is best on the
> right. But it is entirely possible to do and not sacrifice overall
> usability.
> 
> cheers,
> Jim
> 
> 
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> 1. In GERMAN: UX Workshops <http://www.uxworkshops.com> in *Hamburg *by
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> a. Prinzipien der Informationsarchitektur
> <http://www.netflow-lindemann.de/usability_workshop_1.html>
> b. Elemente des
> Navigationsdesigns<http://www.netflow-lindemann.de/usability_workshop_2.html>
> Die online
> Anmeldung<http://www.netflow-lindemann.de/usability_workshops_anmeldung.php>ist
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> 2. in ENGLISH: ANZ UX Workshops in *Sydney*, 28-29 April
> a. IA for Strategic Web
> Design<http://anzuxworkshops.wordpress.com/workshop-1-ia/>
> b. Web Navigation
> Design<http://anzuxworkshops.wordpress.com/workshop-2-navigation/>
> See our website for more information and to
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