Navigation: Left is Best
Posted on April 22nd, 2006 in Usability | 6 Comments »
“An important question relates to where the first navigational choices should be located on the page. Is the navigation better placed at the top of the page, on the left or right panels? If three clicks (i.e., three navigational level selections) are required to get to the desired content, should they be grouped together at the top, left, right, or split between different locations (e.g., select from the top, with the next selection[s] from the left, top or right)?”
“Kingsburg and Andre’s research demonstrated that navigational selection limited to either the left or right panels resulted in the best human performance and strongest user preference. However, there appears to be a performance advantage when the first selection is made from the left navigation panel as compared to the right navigation panel. This difference may be explained by the reading pattern of the participants (i.e., English reading requires reading from left to right and top to bottom).” (Source: Usability.gov, Author: Dr. Bob Bailey)
6 Responses
interesting… I’ve been thinking about this a little due to a project I’m working on and some discussion we’ve been having re: left vs right navigation
i’m just thinking now that perhaps it is due to the prevalence of RHS navigation on blogs that I’ve found myself designing more RHS navigation systems lately… I seem to have developed a perception of LHS navigation systems feel clunky and dated and … in the wrong place…
perhaps it’s just a phase i’m going through…
anyone else having a similar experience?
[...] Shouldn’t take you long to guess what I’ve been stewing on today (thanks John!) [...]
Well, the real question to ask is: how was the test conducted to lead to this conclusion that LHS navigation is best.
I have workd on sites (and very functional ones at that) that used RHS AND top nav which have had better results than traditional LHS, in terms of usabiity, user’s ability to find information on the page etc…
Navigation does not exist in a vacuum. Color, typography, page design, structure and balance and a few more parameters need to be taken into account.
So in short, I’d suggest we take that research with a grain of salt. And I’m not surprised at Lisa’s remarks either.; aren’t we all going through phases ?
And did not spend the rs gold and rs money, but I need them.
When your gold gets the number, you can change for RF CP. But I play the game, I would not cost any.
At beginning our dreams were get the more Rappelz money. So we very hard, we knew you could become the leader, you had the ability to lead the people.