Left and right?

[Samuël van Laere]

Some like the navigation on the left-side others to the right.
I've used the stylesheet swicher code (as found on this group, thanks for
that) to allow visitors to switch style.
Does it make sence to offer both (left and right) to the visitor?
http://www.fortron.net/test.htm

Thanks in advance for your comments.

 

[Andy Holmes]

Some like the navigation on the left-side others to the right.
I've used the stylesheet swicher code (as found on this group, thanks for
that) to allow visitors to switch style.
Does it make sence to offer both (left and right) to the visitor?
http://www.fortron.net/test.htm

Thanks in advance for your comments.

I was reading a thread not that long ago in which it was suggested and
generally agreed that having the navigation on the right was bad for
accessibility reasons, as some people that may be use to it on the left
(since it is the norm, generally) would be confused by it. It's all
pretty subjective of course, but I found it a pretty reasonable point.

-Andy

 

[Samuël van Laere]

I was reading a thread not that long ago in which it was suggested and
generally agreed that having the navigation on the right was bad for
accessibility reasons, as some people that may be use to it on the left
(since it is the norm, generally) would be confused by it. It's all
pretty subjective of course, but I found it a pretty reasonable point.

-Andy

My idea is to present a left navigation as a default.
I offer right navigation for visitors who prefer that.
Its no so much if i should offer left and right navigation,
but more in what way to present it to the visitor.

I don't see why a right navigation is considered unaccessible.
The document structure is the same for both left and right navigation. (in
my case anyway)
Textbrowsers won't notice any differences, nor should any other type of
browser?

 

[Adrienne]

Gazing into my crystal ball I observed Andy Holmes

I was reading a thread not that long ago in which it was suggested and
generally agreed that having the navigation on the right was bad for
accessibility reasons, as some people that may be use to it on the left
(since it is the norm, generally) would be confused by it. It's all
pretty subjective of course, but I found it a pretty reasonable point.

-Andy

I have a few clients who are from Israel, and they like navigation on the
right, I suppose it seems more natural for them since Hebrew is their first
language. I noticed that their eyes tended to look to the right first,
then scanned to the left where the menu was.

 

[Eric Bohlman]

I don't see why a right navigation is considered unaccessible.
The document structure is the same for both left and right navigation.
(in my case anyway)
Textbrowsers won't notice any differences, nor should any other type
of browser?

I think the concern is that it may be problematic for people with certain
mental disabilities or speech/language problems, simply due to its being in
an "unexpected" place. For example, people with certain autistic-spectrum
disorders may find it quite stressful to have their usual routine broken
(and, let's face it, even users without disabilities are likely to
experience momentary stress when they see something that should look
familiar arranged in an unfamiliar way. It's something that needs to be
adjusted to and while most of us can make that adjustment pretty quickly,
it can be rather effortful for some people).

Or someone with a physical disability that makes mouse/keyboard use
difficult (but not impossible) might be running some sort of utility that
allows them to "jump" the cursor to particular areas of the window. In
that case, they'll probably have a "mouse macro" to put the cursor at the
left edge and a little bit down from the top, since that's where the
majority of navigation menus live and "homing" the cursor there reduces the
amount of mouse motion needed to navigate. Putting the menu on the right
means they have to manually scoot the cursor over to the right edge and
define another "macro" that's just for this particular site's navigation.

Accessibility isn't an all-or-nothing proposition. In both cases, the
combination of the user's disability and the handicap [1] created by the
non-standard layout doesn't make the page completely unusable, but it makes
it substantially less usable (more mental or physical effort required).

[1] Terminology:

Impairment: "something wrong with" a user's brain or body.

Disability: finding a task difficult or impossible as a result of an
impairment.

Handicap: a feature of the user's environment that makes an impairment more
disabling.

Example: Color-blindness is an impairment. It normally creates little if
any disability. But if a page presents all its links with poorly-
contrasting foreground and background colors, it presents a handicap to the
color-blind user. In this case, a handicap that creates a disability out
of thin air.

 

[Andy Holmes]

I have a few clients who are from Israel, and they like navigation on the
right, I suppose it seems more natural for them since Hebrew is their first
language. I noticed that their eyes tended to look to the right first,
then scanned to the left where the menu was.

That's a good point. It's really dependant on what the use is expecting
and/or use to.

-Andy

 

[Beauregard T. Shagnasty]

Adrienne pounced upon this pigeonhole and pronounced:

Gazing into my crystal ball I observed Andy Holmes


I have a few clients who are from Israel, and they like navigation on the
right, I suppose it seems more natural for them since Hebrew is their first
language. I noticed that their eyes tended to look to the right first,
then scanned to the left where the menu was.

On one of my sites, I moved the (clearly recognizable) menu to the right
after suggestions it would reduce mouse movements considerably. The menu
is just inboard of the scrollbar, so the movement from clicking button to
scrollbar is minimal.

Further, a few claimed that having the content aligned near the left edge
of the window makes reading easier (for those of us who read left-to-
right).