Back in 2003, we came across a situation where, according to the creative folks, 'right hand menus' were an absolute must. My first response was to cite a bunch of studies, make 'users expect what is common' arguments and generally point out many pitfalls etc. However, when nobody budged, we went ahead and tested it (2 rounds no less).
Lo and behold, users had no problems. Again, we'd given so much input into the design that the menu was very clearly 'a menu' with underlined links and clear labels etc. But it was still a shock as to how well it did. Well that taught us something (other than being too specific about recommendations we hadn't tested). Nowadays, we advocate the right design for the navigation and have come to rely on a certain type of grouping and line length for the links, a pattern if you will, rather than the location. We see that you can put this 'menu' anywhere, right, left, below the fold and users might not expect it there but will still recognize that this is navigation and use it. One caveat is that the prevalence of wide screens will have an impact on stuff on the right. Most of our work is fixed width and so we haven't heard anything yet. It will be interesting to hear from folks who may have...? -Adamya On 9/24/08, Joe Sokohl <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I must've missed those tests. The most recent one I found was an exhaustive > one that James Kalbach did in the early 2000s. His research showed no > measureable improvement in usability with a right-hand nav, despite the > hypothesis that proximity to the scroll bar and right-handedness might > have. > > In addition, my recent analysis to answer exactly this question seemed to > indicate that inverted-L navigation still predominates, enough to be > considered a convention. That doesn't mean we adhere to convention soley > because it's a convention, but I think one could at least consider > inverted-L as a pattern. And Christina's observation about ads does fit > here--there's a learned convention that the right-most column contains ads > that are to be avoided :) > > Just my observation, > > joe > > > > > > On Sep 20, 2008, at 4:02 PM, > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > wrote: > > > > > Date: Sat, 20 Sep 2008 07:45:27 -0700 > > > From: "Christina Wodtke" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > > Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] right hand vertical menus > > > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > Message-ID: > > > > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 > > > > > > Every usability study I've seen in last several years showed the nav > menu on > > > the right performing at least as well as on the left, as long as it was > > > designed with strong affordances and, as was mentioned, wasn't killed by > > > resizing, and is more ergonomic because of its location near the scroll > bar. > > > > > > Moreover, the pervasiveness of blogs, who often have right-hand > navigation, > > > makes it at least as common a convention. I think the left-hand nav > > > convention died in 2001-ish. In any case, it's not a worry as far as I > can > > > discern. > > > > > > One caveat: don't mix ads and navigation; then navigation does take a > hit in > > > findability and usage. > > > > > > On Sat, Sep 20, 2008 at 5:33 AM, Todd Zaki Warfel > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>wrote: > > > > > > > > > > We've been working on a number of web-based applications recently and > used > > > > a right-hand navigation/action panel. Some of these past applications > had > > > > the standard horizontal navigation across the header and sub-nav below > that. > > > > Others used a primary navigation across the header and sub-navigation > in the > > > > left rail. > > > > > > > > We chose to have the primary 3-5 sections as primary navigation tabs > across > > > > the header. Global actions, which are kind of sub-navigation, but kind > of > > > > not, have been put in the right hand rail. Additionally, status > information > > > > (e.g. the Account Balance $530.00) lives in this right hand panel as > well. > > > > So, we've made it into a global status and actions panel. > > > > > > > > We've done some A/B testing with the old applications and the new > > > > redesigned framework and it's been very successful so far. There's > some > > > > initial delay, as is expected since these guys have been using the old > > > > system for over 5 years. But after that initial delay, the efficiency > has > > > > increased over 20%. > > > > > > > > I'd contribute these improvements to a number of things: > > > > 1. The overall redesign is organized better, visual spacing improved, > > > > readability improved. > > > > 2. We've surfaced global areas into a common, predictable area. > Something > > > > they had to hunt for under a number of different menus before. > > > > 3. The content is first, actions are second in reading left to right. > So, > > > > the content these people need to access in order to complete the task > is > > > > first in the screen, shaving off some time, effort, and cognitive > load. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Cheers! > > > > > > > > Todd Zaki Warfel > > > > President, Design Researcher > > > > Messagefirst | Designing Information. Beautifully. > > > > ---------------------------------- > > > > Contact Info > > > > Voice: (215) 825-7423 > > > > Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > AIM: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > Blog: http://toddwarfel.com > > > > Twitter: zakiwarfel > > > > ---------------------------------- > > > > In theory, theory and practice are the same. > > > > In practice, they are not. > > > > > > > > > > > > > ________________________________________________________________ > > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Unsubscribe ................ > http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe > List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines > List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help > ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
