where oh where should my site links be put

[Katches]

All the articles I have read on web publishing suggest that links to your
site have a placemat on the right hand side. I'd like to know who initially
made up this rule and I would also debate that placing links on the left
closer to the viewer's browser scroll bar is more efficient.

Is there some kind of study that shows a user preference to this? Is it simply
for eye appeal?

Katches

[katches]

"Katches" <katches@atl.mediaone.net> wrote:
>
>All the articles I have read on web publishing suggest that links to your
>site have a placemat on the right hand side. I'd like to know who initially
>made up this rule and I would also debate that placing links on the left
>closer to the viewer's browser scroll bar is more efficient.
>
>Is there some kind of study that shows a user preference to this? Is it
simply
>for eye appeal?
>
>Katches

oops let me refrase my statement. All site links are suggested to be placed
on the left but I find the right more effecient.

Katches

[Shawn K. Hall]

Katches,

I think the design issue is that your "content" should be
sizeable however your guide/menu/links (whatever you want to call
it) may have fixed width images or other information that works
best in a fixed environment. Hence, the left side of the screen
is more appropriate for proportional sizing (20%,*).

It's really a UI issue more than a simple "ease-of-use" issue, as
I think you'll find that since "everyone else does it" it'll be
easier for your visitors to become acclimatized to your site if
you follow standard UI layout designs.

Take a look at Outlook or any other heirarchial layout UI - I've
only ever seen *1* application that had the heirarchy to the
right - and after significant user complaints it was moved to the
left.

And if you want to go "against the grain" - why not just move the
scrollbar to the left side? <g>

Regards,
--
Shawn K. Hall
http://i.am/shawnkhall

Please post/respond *only* in the newsgroups

"katches" <katches@alt.mediaone.net> wrote in message
news:396a3293@news.devx.com...
>
> "Katches" <katches@atl.mediaone.net> wrote:
> >
> >All the articles I have read on web publishing suggest that
links to your
> >site have a placemat on the right hand side. I'd like to know
who initially
> >made up this rule and I would also debate that placing links
on the left
> >closer to the viewer's browser scroll bar is more efficient.
> >
> >Is there some kind of study that shows a user preference to
this? Is it
> simply
> >for eye appeal?
> >
> >Katches
>
> oops let me refrase my statement. All site links are suggested
to be placed
> on the left but I find the right more effecient.
>
> Katches
>

[Gabriel Camargo]

"Katches" <katches@atl.mediaone.net> wrote:
>
>All the articles I have read on web publishing suggest that links to your
>site have a placemat on the right hand side. I'd like to know who initially
>made up this rule and I would also debate that placing links on the left
>closer to the viewer's browser scroll bar is more efficient.
>
>Is there some kind of study that shows a user preference to this? Is it
simply
>for eye appeal?
>
>Katches

Think outside of the box. Place them anywhere you want to. This make for
good looking sites.

[Dave]

Now I have to disagree with this!

First off, how many times have you surfed somewhere (emphasis on _surf_)
and didn't have the time to learn a new-and-different way of navigating the
site? Say what you will about the Windows OS (or better yet the PARC GUI),
before users adopted this there were w-a-y too many ways of navigating apps.
The price to pay for being different from the rest is that 'the rest' will
take traffic away from you.

As for the placement of a site menu... there are many user testing labs that
have proven the the vast majority of users tend to look from the top left
to the bottom right of a web page. These are the same type of testing that
have brought us the pyramid style of news writing in journalism, the catch
phrase style of marketing campaigns, etc. Why do most sites place their navigation
on the left? Because it's the best place for ease of use.

JMHO.

[Kelley]

"Katches" <katches@atl.mediaone.net> wrote:
>
>All the articles I have read on web publishing suggest that links to your
>site have a placemat on the right hand side. I'd like to know who initially
>made up this rule and I would also debate that placing links on the left
>closer to the viewer's browser scroll bar is more efficient.
>
>Is there some kind of study that shows a user preference to this? Is it
simply
>for eye appeal?
>
>Katches

I'm going to have to agree with the "users are used to it" theory, but I
had a couple of bits of info to add. To me, nothing is more frustrating
than controls being placed so close together that the user frequently hits
the wrong one. Were nav bars to be placed next to the scroll bar, the potential
for unintentional navigation skyrockets. Many users use their mouse to click
on and drag the scrollbar. That's just begging for disaster (not quite so
drastic, maybe) if you have a right-hand scrollbar.

On some of our intranet apps, we've started using navigation aids at the
top of our pages. To do such a thing, though, you've got to pay a lot of
attention to design. Make sure that it's visually obvious that they're up
there and not just part of some pretty graphics. I actually prefer using
top nav bars now -- it frees up a lot of your horizontal space, and we all
know that end users are far more tolerant of scrolling vertically than horizontally.
For me, the more horizontal space I have, the happier I am!

And there ya have it folks, my two cents (for what it's worth).

Regards,
Kelley

[Cherie]

"Katches" <katches@atl.mediaone.net> wrote:
>Is there some kind of study that shows a user preference to this? Is it
simply
>for eye appeal?

In redesigning one of my sites, I discovered at least one reason why people
may have initially put them on the left. (And why I always do! :-)

If your site is designed, as mine is, with graphical navigation on the left
side, then text navigation on the bottom, when a text-only browser such as
Lynx displays it, it will put the left-hand links at the top of the page,
and the bottom links on the bottom. When I tried to stick the navigation
on the right, I ended up with two sets of links at the bottom of the page
and none at the top. Strange-looking, if not downright annoying...

Cherie