[IxDA Discuss] Right or Left SideBar for a browser based application

[Susan Farrell]

The main dangers of right-hand nav are that users might not notice it 
and that they might not see it.

I've run user tests in which people ignored everything on the right 
side of pages, including secondary navigation items. I believe that 
this happened because there were also ads on the right side and 
things in boxes that looked like they might be ads. Because so many 
sites have standardized on ads in the right column, I think it is 
important to avoid such advertising placement if you have something 
on the right that you want to make sure people notice, especially on 
visually crowded sites.

The main reason navigation has standardized to be on the top and left 
is that those are the two sides of the browser window that are 
visible at most window sizes. So if you put nav on the right instead, 
it's necessary to ensure it will be onscreen, for example by using a 
liquid or elastic layout that accommodates a  range of window widths.

The alternative is to enforce a fixed window size, which is bad for 
device accessibility and irritates a lot of people by taking 
window-size control away from them. (For a small-window wizard on a 
constrained target platform, flexibility might not be so crucial, 
however.)

I've also noticed that the background color of navigation areas can 
make a huge difference in how noticeable they are, so it's a good 
idea to user test some alternatives until you find the color that 
works best for your design and palette. Pastel yellow and pastel blue 
have tested well for me a number of times, but there are likely many 
other good colors out there I have not tried.

Susan