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

[Jim Drew]

To my way of thinking, the location of the navigation bar (and other page elements) should be informed by the use and content of the pages.  Western audiences follow the top-left to bottom-right reading model.

If the bulk of the user's interactions will be in navigation -- such as wending your way through a site to find printer drivers and such -- then the navigation is "most important" and should be in the part of the window where users will look first (upper left).  Put it on the right and users have to "read" (scan across) the width of the window nwith each page in order to get to the nav controls again.

But if the use is going to be largely content perusal -- reading, etc. -- then the important stuff is the content, and having where the user will be spending the bulk of his focus time is the right thing to do.

Linked in with this, of course, is what other content is present.  Someone mentioned the bad idea of mixing nav and ads on the same side of the screen, and I would agree with that.  Give nav, ads, and content on-screen at once (like with an online newspaper) putting the content in the middle and the nav on the left would fit best in the above model.

-- Jim Drew
   Seattle, WA