|
| |
|
|
BeTheBall
Posts: 6359
Joined: 6/21/2002
From: West Point Utah USA
Status: offline
 |
Just Curious - 5/2/2006 16:56:29
Four or five years ago when I first started getting involved in web development it seemed like most sites had navigation on the left and content on the right. Lately, I am seeing a lot of navigation menus on the right and the content on the left. From an accessibility standpoint, this seems to make sense. A Skip Navigation link would be unnecessary given that the content would come first. Does anyone know if this is a motivating factor behind so many sites moving navigation to the right side of the layout?
_____________________________
Duane
Some people are like Slinkies . . . Not really good for anything . . . . . But they still bring a smile to your face when you push them down a flight of stairs.
|
|
|
|
dpf
Posts: 7121
Joined: 11/12/2003
From: India-napolis
Status: offline
|
RE: Just Curious - 5/2/2006 16:59:44
its merely the acccessibility pleading of the Society for Protection of Left-Handers
_____________________________
Dan
| |
|
|
|
Tailslide
Posts: 6032
Joined: 5/10/2005
From: Out here on the raggedy edge
Status: offline
|
RE: Just Curious - 5/2/2006 17:31:35
It's just fashion- there's no accessibility reason for it.
Then again, personally I tend to prefer nav on the right hand side as I'm right handed - less movement of the mouse and I find it easier for my eye to travel back to the start of the next line of text if it's against the edge of the site rather than next to a load of distracting navigation - but that may well just be me.
The order of content in the source doesn't matter at all because you can place the content wherever you like on the page visually and have pretty much whatever order you like in the markup. It would still be an idea to provide skip links if you have content first - just this time it'd go to the navigation instead. Very useful.
_____________________________
"My strategy is so simple an idiot could have devised it"
Little Blue Plane Web Design | Blood, Sweat & Rust - A Land Rover restoration project
| |
|
|
|
rubyaim
Posts: 757
Joined: 6/22/2005
Status: offline
|
RE: Just Curious - 5/2/2006 20:08:50
I experimented with right hand navigation and got complaints from some users so switched back to left.
There was a post here last year by Tailslide about source order that was interesting:
quote:
This article includes some research (although not exactly a massive sample group used) which shows that the majority of users of text readers expect to find navigation BEFORE the content and it could actually be confusing to people if the content came first.
As a side note - Our company hired a marketing guru some time ago and he went through a lot of our printed documents and offered suggestions for improvements.
One of his points was that when a native reader of English (the 'average person') looks at a page, their eye was always drawn to the right hand side first and suggested we place things there we wanted noticed.
I found myself doing this and when I go to a webpage do tend to look right first - I don't really notice left hand nav until I want to use it but it seems to stand out if on the right.
_____________________________
Sally
| |
|
|
|
dpf
Posts: 7121
Joined: 11/12/2003
From: India-napolis
Status: offline
|
RE: Just Curious - 5/2/2006 20:55:05
quote:
shows that the majority of users of text readers expect to find navigation BEFORE the content what a surprise! i always expect the table of contents before chapter one. as for this:
quote:
One of his points was that when a native reader of English (the 'average person') looks at a page, their eye was always drawn to the right hand side first seems odd that left to right reader would look right first - would an Arabic reader look left first, I wonder?
_____________________________
Dan
| |
|
|
|
rubyaim
Posts: 757
Joined: 6/22/2005
Status: offline
|
RE: Just Curious - 5/2/2006 21:29:37
Just googled left / right navigation and read the first page that came up:
http://jodi.tamu.edu/Articles/v04/i01/Kalbach/
Bottom line is that is makes no real difference - study of 64 users broken into two groups.
quote:
Right-hand users, who make up a majority of the general population, may find a right-hand navigation more comfortable.
A drawback to a right-justified navigation menu, however, is the interaction with the browser's back button. The back button is located in the upper left corner of most browsers.
My personal preference is "I don't care where the nav is as long as I can find it".
_____________________________
Sally
| |
|
 New Messages |
 No New Messages |
 Hot Topic w/ New Messages |
 Hot Topic w/o New Messages |
 Locked w/ New Messages |
 Locked w/o New Messages |
|
Post New Thread
Reply to Message
Post New Poll
Submit Vote
Delete My Own Post
Delete My Own Thread
Rate Posts
|
|
|
Printable Version 
