Viewing Thread:
"Quick survey"

Not a major post, i was just hoping to get some opinions to help me finalise some stuff.

Navigation boxes:
Better on the left side of the screen, as tradition suggests;
or on the right, where it'll be right next to the vertical scroll bar;
or it doesn't really matter so long as it looks good and functions well.

thanks

Dr. Duck wrote:
> Hmm, the top could be good - i was thinking it looked a little short down the
> side...

The good thing about it on the top is that, when it's slotted into it's own frameset at the top, it folows you around the page, which can be annoying, but I like it.

It's better doing the same thing down the left, though, because it means the rest of the page is still a reasonable size, instead of half a screen tall.

Tyla wrote:
> I'm not saying Navigation placed somewhere else is wrong,
> but I'm trying to point out that everyone in here is
> familiar with a website and what does what... If you
> want to test this theory... Sit your Granny in front of
> the PC and see how she looks for signs on what to do...
> She'll get to grips with TLHC Vavigation a 100 times
> faster than anything else!!

Good point, and I understand it, but we need to push these boundaries too. Some of the sites I mentioned before are high-traffic sites that I would expect my granny to be able to use... Site are not just about looking and working good, they are also about company branding and image, and I think that if you can put up a web site that breaks the norm, and that people still like and find easy to use, you are going to make a better impact on your users in terms of company recognition.

Like I said, we could all churn out TL clones all day, all night, but people take more notice of something different from the norm.

slaveunit wrote:
> as long as it is obvious how it works, what does it matter?

>(cue tyla... :)


****Tyla enters...

Human Computer Interaction... Nuff said!! Things are only obvious if they are familiar, too many people in here forget about novice users, first timers who need comforting and time to familirise themselves with what they are doing.

People subconciously map things in their head and buil dtheir own expectations on where to find something and become confused if the obvious isn't there...

I'm not saying Navigation placed somewhere else is wrong, but I'm trying to point out that everyone in here is familiar with a website and what does what... If you want to test this theory... Sit your Granny in front of the PC and see how she looks for signs on what to do... She'll get to grips with TLHC Vavigation a 100 times faster than anything else!!

as long as it is obvious how it works, what does it matter?

(cue tyla... :) )

I too agree with breaking the "rules" occasionally, and as mentioned, some sites use RH nav in their pages, but this is sub-nav and not root-nav which all in all tends to live on the TLHC

Oh dear, I must disagree... on the left eh? Boo sucks... check this lot out...

google.com, microsoft.com, adobe.com, yahoo.com, bbc.co.uk... (even the great funkygamer.com dares to put navigation on the right in some cases)... yadda yadda, these sites prove that when you break the "stick the nav bar on the left side" rule, you can have a great looking and yet still navigable site.

Tyla is right to point out that when you create a web site, it is still a Human Computer Interaction (Jenny Preece, 2nd Edition, required reading for a B.Sc) that you are designing.

I'm a great believer in design rules. I'm also believer in breaking them from time-to-time. Lets not make websites that are all clones of each other eh?

Based on the findings in a book called Human Computer Interaction as well as many usability studies world wide, users are more familiar and more comfortable with the navigation being on the top left of the screen as this is what they have come to expect...

To an extent, you can also use a horizontal nav along the top as a lower percentage of users are familiar with this layout too.

Bu the moment you place it onto the right hand side you create alot of problems...

Obviously the main one is screen size... With the TL alignment, no matter what size the screen, you nav will always be visible thus relaxing the user and installing confidens in their use of the site.

There are a lot of papers and book on the positioning of navigation on websites and most of them tend to agree with the TLH corner approach.

Well, I'd vote left for the main nav options, but I've used the right as well for local nav selections once you're in to a specific section of the site.

The limits on the size of a vertical nav list also opens the discussion of whether a home page in particular should be more than a screen's depth. I read ages ago that you shouldnt need to scroll to see all of a home page, but there are *plenty* of examples of that advice being ignored. Personally, I don't mind scrolling down to see more of a page, but left/right really annoys me. Can't explain why. So - go for a big long list of links down the left side (or use some fancy script to get expanding menus)

www.trishstratus.co.uk is just a little example of how the top could look ... though it's not amazing and hard to expand, you can get some things there :o)

Hmm, the top could be good - i was thinking it looked a little short down the side...