On the NSCU site we have positioned the navigation on the right, rather than the traditional left-hand side [example: our credit cards page]. Often when the site gets reviewed by an outside consultancy or “expert”, they comment on the navigation position and suggest we move it to the left. Afterall “that’s the way everyone does it”, their used to it, don’t break the affordance, etc…
I’m open to change, but reluctant to do so based on little more than personal preference. I prefer to test, evaluate, then act. So far we haven’t changed it because I have yet to see a user during on our numerous usability testing sessions having trouble using it, nor have we seen an impact on the site’s ease-of-use. In fact, we found that visitors engaged more with page content (now at the left they see the content not the navigation first) and made use of more of the page information (e.g. read more of the page) than when there was navigation at the left. Additionally the proximity to the scroll bar and the fact that most are right-handed, makes browsing easier — Fitt’s Law in action.
So I was pleasently surprised today to see the folks at Free Usability Advice answer my question about our navigation that I had submitted a couple months ago and agree with our direction. Their response listen to your users and your data over expert opinion.
My question
Our site uses a right-hand navigation, rather than the traditional left-hand navigation. We’ve tested this extensively and the results have always been very positive. Experts tell us to move the navigation to the left. Should we listen to experts or our users?
Their answer
If you’ve done extensive testing of your website with the correct types of users and the right sample size, and the users had no trouble with right-hand navigation, then trust the user data over expert opinion.
While it’s true that left-hand navigation is more common and more expected than right-hand navigation, remember that standards and guidelines merely provide a starting point for design. In absence of data to support going against a standard, the standard should be followed. However, we’ve seen several instances where, because the user audience was different from “the norm†or because of other causes, a standard wasn’t the best answer.
Some of the arguements for and against right-hand navigation:
2 replies on “Right-hand vs. left-hand navigation”
One man’s unscientific support of right-hand navigation (especially on a blog): Since we (in N. America, anyway) read left to right, it’s easier for me to see and read the content when the navigation is off to the right.
The “it’s what everybody else does, so people are familiar with it” argument doesn’t really fly with me. People aren’t stupid. If the navigation elements LOOK consistent with what’s on other sites, then people will find it whether its on the left or right (or top — bottom is another story).
The goal shouldn’t be conformity — the goal should be …. well, goal achievement — helping users achieve their goals (why they came to the site) AND achieving the credit union’s goal (getting members to read content, take action, etc.)
I agree, and a few more positive reasons for right side navigation:
1) If the page is clipped (due to wide, fixed-width designs in smaller screens, the right side is what gets clipped; if that’s the right navigation then it’s less of a problem on the user who’s probably reading the main text anyway, and thus doesn’t have to joggle the horizontal nav bar.
2) Right side navigation is semantically better for keyboard navigators, especially if no other keyboard aides are used (tabindex, accesskeys, skip links, etc.). Proper use of markup and semantic organization is a Priority 1 accessibility issue.
3) Related to #2, search engines generally give greater weight to the keywords in the top region of a page, so if the semantic order puts a lot of skewed navigation links first (links targeting other pages than what is active) then current page referencing is impacted.
And good point about the right hand convenience issue. I’m actually left handed but picked up right hand mouse use as easy as I did right handed scissors in grade school. Kind of a forced ergonomic thing, I guess, but it just seemed like the more natural way…keeping the cursor on deck on the right side where the scrollbar is anyway.