offsprg01 Posted January 30, 2007 Share Posted January 30, 2007 ok so i was talking with a few of my web designer buddies and this topic came up.From the arcane days of the internet all navagation was either at the top of the screen or the right hand side of the screen, and sometimes it was suplimented with footer navigation.We came to the conclusion that this was mainly due for 2 reasons. one americans read right to left, top to bottom, and second and most importantly screens were tiny, and if you put you navigation anywhere else you rand the risk of it dissappearing.Well we are now in the era of large monitors, so placing you navigation on the right hand side of the page won't make it preform any hudini trickson you users. couple that with the fact the scroll bar is on the right hand side of the screen, and that brings me to my point, wouldn't it be easier to put all the nav on the right hand side of the screen next to the scroll bar? i mean come on humans are lazy, and it would save us a crap load of mousing around. or we could just require every mouse produced come with a scroll wheel. /shrug Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bibby Posted February 1, 2007 Share Posted February 1, 2007 I never remembered it being on the right side. ???Top / Left never fails.You have to remember that even though grandma has a 1280 x 1024 monitor, chances are she's rocking 800 x 600. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyB Posted February 1, 2007 Share Posted February 1, 2007 When Bad Design Elements Become the Standard[quote]If we were starting from scratch, we might improve the usability of a site by 1% or so by having a navigation rail on the right rather than on the left. But deviating from the standard would almost certainly impose a much bigger cost in terms of confusion and reduced ability to navigate smoothly.[/quote]Part abstract from a Jakob Nielsen article at http://www.useit.com/alertbox/991114.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
s0c0 Posted February 1, 2007 Share Posted February 1, 2007 Americans read right to left? Maybe Bush, but not me. ;D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmgmyr Posted February 1, 2007 Share Posted February 1, 2007 Looks like you got your lefts and rights a little messed up...[img]http://www.post-gazette.com/images4/20060521rightlefttest.gif[/img]http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06141/691956-114.stmhttp://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=how+to+tell+left+from+right..don't worry it's all in good fun :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir William Posted February 2, 2007 Share Posted February 2, 2007 Before CSS, when layout was all tables, and knowing that relevant content higher in the page helped search engine rankings, some people put navigation on the right so as to get content read first and thereby help their rankings. But with CSS positioning, you can have your content first and still have your nav on the left or right as you see fit.Most of the sites I do have it on the left, but I do have a few on the right for the heck of it. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jenk Posted February 4, 2007 Share Posted February 4, 2007 I prefer right handed nav columns, as I operate my mouse with my right. It's closer to the scroll bar, and it's also the general area my mouse cursor will end up when I move it out of the way, so I can read the content. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Racc Posted February 6, 2007 Share Posted February 6, 2007 Arabic's read bottom right to left top. ??? Supposidly one of the harder languages to learn.But why change navigation to make a minority happy? If they're reading your site they MUST know English, so they must know how to read it right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jenk Posted February 6, 2007 Share Posted February 6, 2007 It might not be the minority.. his site may be niched for the Arabic user base, or, he is maintaining a multi-lingual site.Another option is to let the user choose, via an option in the "control panel." Simply have two (or more) CSS stylesheets, and an option to choose them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Racc Posted February 6, 2007 Share Posted February 6, 2007 [quote author=Jenk link=topic=124711.msg522434#msg522434 date=1170754180]It might not be the minority.. his site may be niched for the Arabic user base, or, he is maintaining a multi-lingual site.Another option is to let the user choose, via an option in the "control panel." Simply have two (or more) CSS stylesheets, and an option to choose them.[/quote]Yes, but if it's english why would this even matter? English is read from left to right, top to bottom. He seems to speak English quite well I doubt it's majority Arabic.Good idea on the control panel. Maybe add an option on registration aswell? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jenk Posted February 6, 2007 Share Posted February 6, 2007 If you are going to cling onto the point about arabic writing, you may as well just give up now. It's a minor point at best.Besides which, no where does he state he wants to have right to left reading, all he has simply asked is which side of the screen do we prefer the navigation menu/bar to be on when browsing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Racc Posted February 7, 2007 Share Posted February 7, 2007 [quote author=Jenk link=topic=124711.msg522450#msg522450 date=1170755426]If you are going to cling onto the point about arabic writing, you may as well just give up now. It's a minor point at best.Besides which, no where does he state he wants to have right to left reading, all he has simply asked is which side of the screen do we prefer the navigation menu/bar to be on when browsing.[/quote]Indeed we were going off topic.Depends on how the layout looks with it, it all needs to flow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
448191 Posted February 7, 2007 Share Posted February 7, 2007 [quote author=AndyB link=topic=124711.msg518881#msg518881 date=1170333266]Part abstract from a Jakob Nielsen article at http://www.useit.com/alertbox/991114.html[/quote]There might seem to be some truth to that. I'm a lefty, and I hate navigation on the right side. Might have to do with "the power of the mayority" Nielsen is talking about too though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
offsprg01 Posted February 9, 2007 Author Share Posted February 9, 2007 well i've converted one of my sites to right hand navigation site just for the heck of it. so far the majority of users seem to either like it better or have no diffrence in opinions. there is a very vocal minority that is opposed to the change, but they've learend to deal with it. i plan on offering the users a couple of diffrent layouts to choose from in later stages of the redesign though, so that should appease every one.and the way i see it if grandma is still using 800x600 she can just scroll. i gave up a long time ago on limiting myself to antiquated standards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shears Posted March 1, 2007 Share Posted March 1, 2007 americans read right to left What is the point in this topic? We read left to right therefore menus are on left. If the screen resolution is too low and scrolling is needed to see entire page, having a menu on left will mean that no scrolling is needed to see menu. Shears Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jessica Posted March 1, 2007 Share Posted March 1, 2007 Usability standards say to put navigation top/left, never right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jenk Posted March 2, 2007 Share Posted March 2, 2007 Usability standards say to put navigation top/left, never right. What "standards" are those? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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