Preserved Topic: Opinion pole, left or right :) - Menu's (Page 1 of 1)

Was just thinking the other night, i guess the standard trend has been to go left, but i prefer right because its nice and close to the scroll bar, so kinda more efficient heh, especially if you have a big monitor ;P

Whats everyones opinions on this?

*EDIT yes poll sorry lol not pole,

[This message has been edited by H][RO (edited 10-24-2002).]

pole? you mean poll?
well, that really depends on the whole site layout.

Yup, depends a great deal on many factors.

I generally am partial to right-side navigation though.

I don't mind right side navigation at all.
I'm about 50/50 with this.
It really depends on too many factors to give a generalization, in my opinion.

And I could care less that I'm closer to the scroll bar................ as I usually just scroll with my mouse, anyway.

Yep, I agree with everyone else on this. If it works with the rest of the page, then it works. Just depends on a lot of things.

I am with Michael on the scroll bar. I use my mouse scroll to really care.

Later,
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~Binary is best~

Left or right doesn't matter much, but a menu at the top or bottom (with frames or the like) doesn't really work, IMHO.

Right makes the most sense and if we were to start from scratch it would be the number one choice but users now expect it to be on the left. So do you give them what they want or what is good for them?

<whisper>We are talking about which side we guys 'dress' on aren't we?</whisper>

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Emps

FAQs: Emperor

Bah...menu positon doesnt really matter to me, just so long as there is a menu for guidance, it could be on the top, bottom, left, or right. Being close to the scrollbar means nothing like some of the others just use the wheel to scroll and if you don't have a scroll wheel does it really take that much effort to move your hand a few inches to scroll a littel bit?

Right is nice, but it is not the normal which may throw people off a little, and you would have to make sure that they don't have to scroll to see the menu, or to see more of it because that would be bad. But if done right I think right menu's would be a nice change, and would set your site apart a little. Scrolling isn't an issue for me, and most mice now come with the middle wheel thing like mine so scrolling with the scrollbar will go out of style.

behmer - Google Bomb, for my dad's site.
kewlster

I would have to go with 50/50 just like Michael on this one.

. . : slicePuzzle

Look at this home page ok?

Ok see how the English language reads left to right? It makes more sense on pages like these to put the forum links to the left. But as stated above, it depends on the site's layout.

For what it's worth - I opted to go with right for my own site, thinking (sensibly) it was closer to where the OS puts the scroll bars. Less mousing = good. But it turned out to be a bitch with css. Most browsers have a pretty fair sense of where "top" and "left" are, but a few notable ones are pretty helpless figuring out where "right" is. At least if you want it to be fluid. And especially if you are defining a right margin in a content div to leave room for the menu. I think my menu is still kinda dicey with some PC flavors of IE.

So consider that in your decision. Before getting too committed to a right side menu, test it out if it's being positioned with css. Personally, I still like right better, and it looks great in all the Mac browsers I've tested it with, but it's something to consider.

Well, I'm hanging a bit to the left right now, but I'm usually a straight-down-the-middle guy... what? Oh, we're talking about menus?

Ahem.

Like Michael et al, I scroll with my mouse, so being next to the scrollbars is not really a factor for me. As Emps pointed out, left menus have become somewhat of a convention. Also, as InSiDeR pointed out, English reads from left to right (and top to bottom), so the more important stuff would be at the top left, then work it's way down from there.

Then again, the site I am currently working eschews both the left and right menus... but it is a personal site. If I were building an informational or business site, I would definitely go with convention.




Cell 270

I'm a left navbar kinda guy... but I like right navs when the site is based on text (like ALA or zeldman)


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Yeah, I am partial to Left, as well...but a well done menu could be anywhere, IMHO, as long as it works, and is easy to define and use.

*shrugs*

I use the wheel mouse to scroll, so...

i noticed alot of people saying "English reads left to right, the most important stuff should be top left"

Wouldnt this in most cases be the content of the site? Personally i would consider the menu to be more of a "Tool" for the site, and for the content to be the most important stuff.. Alse i think your eyes to go straight to top left first, so maybe having the menu on the right would be less of a distraction from the content?

I know its not a big deal or anything, just curious I think its interesting also that menu's started off on the left, was this something to do with limitations of first sites or something?

I think you just answered your own question....

"Alse i think your eyes to go straight to top left first"

That's exactly the point. In English, we are used to starting at the top left, because that's the way we read. Maybe I'm misunderstanding what you're trying to say...

Of course, I can't say with conviction that this is the reason left menus have become conventional, but I would imagine that it's been an important factor.

yeh i guess i was thinking more in terms of early coding i guess

I think menus started at the left side so that they were always visible. For low-res viewers the right side menus could be lost off the edge of the screen and thus make them have to scroll horizontally to see it. I dont know if that is an issue as much anymore but I'm betting that's where it started.

GrythusDraconis
"Be careful not to anger the Great Dragon for you are crunchy and taste good with Ketchup" T-Shirt Somewhere

I agree that both has advantages and disadvantages.
I think i might like right best though, or at least that's what I choose for
my own site.
This made me curious to see my personal "statistics" for this.
So, looking at sites I have made or have in production, I have the following
distribution:
Left: 66
Top: 27
Right: 7
Other: 13 (like bottom or centered)


A big majority for left, it seems. But of course this is also dependent on what the customer asks for.

It doesnt make much different but I'd like the scrollbar at the very right of any design and I think the menu crowds it a little. I like the top/(bottom sometimes) personally.