Left or Right Side Navigation?

[julieA]

My sister's store is up now and we are wondering about navigation links. www.gtcustoms.net/store/

Here's the conversation so far. She is going to add categories from different products types that she is selling and I'm not sure if I should put them on the left side, right side or top.

I know my own preferences but what do ya'll think?

Her to Me: He also said that he thinks the directory for the website would be better on the left hand side of the page because people read from left to right. I told him we would take it under advisement.


Me to Her: Perhaps people do read from left to right but I get so irritated when I'm shopping online and have to keep moving to the left to click Add to Cart. I shop online a LOT and while I may READ the page from left to right, I
shop more quickly when the Add to Cart is on the Right. The individual Add
to Cart for each item is neither on the left or the right but I really
like the Size chart link and the buttons for shipping information to be
easily accessible on the right hand side. Of course, others may feel
differently and we can move them if you prefer.

Me to Her: Hmmm. As a matter of fact, the PAGE links ARE on the left but aren't very visible. I guess we could put a set of links at the TOP of each page that will allow customers to navigate to either the tshirts, art, imported jewelry, etc.

[georgeek]

Usability research refers to navigation schemes with letters, (L)eft, (T)op and (R)ight. So for example a three level navigational selection might be RTR meaning, the initial selection is made from the right navigation panel followed by a selection from the top navigation panel and subsequent selections from the right navigation panel.

Studies show that for three level navigational selection users prefer LLL and LTT.

- George

[jmihawkins]

And truthfully, dont you have to stay oriented toward what the vast majority are used to and expect? Left side and/or top, with the right side used for optional selections. The basic idea is to get their money into your bank account, as easily and painlessly as possible, right? :biggrin:

[Randall]

Use whatever conventions require the least mousing to get things done, is the way I look at it -- I'm not a usability expert but I am an easily annoyed user. :wink:

Randall

[Jeff]

I think I'm "unique" but I really like the menu on the right because with it on the left it feels like I have to keep crossing my field of vision with the mouse to hit the menu. I'm right handed and I like keeping the mouse pointer on the right side of the screen.

[julieA]

Jeff- you may be unique but in this I agree. I hate clicking on the left menu when I am right-handed and prefer my add to cart buttons on the right.

[Randall]

I think I'm "unique" but I really like the menu on the right because with it on the left it feels like I have to keep crossing my field of vision with the mouse to hit the menu. I'm right handed and I like keeping the mouse pointer on the right side of the screen. I've designed a couple of sites with right-hand menus -- either because it made sense visually or because I was feeling perverse. :EG:

If your site is left aligned, left-hand menus make sense -- that stuff about Fitts's law (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitts%27s_law) and all. But with a site like Julie's that spans the window, you can make the same argument for menus on the right. Maybe a stronger argument. :dunno:

Randall

[Jarrod]

If you feel like a bit more scientific experimentation you could always try both and with a free subscription to http://crazyegg.com/ you can see where on the page visitors are clicking the most.

I've tried it on a few pages to see what visitors are doing, and in one case I found that a significant number were clicking on an area of the page I'd never imagined anybody would. It's made me think that I need to do something about that, and enhance the visitor experience (plus get another page view!).

Jarrod

[McDuff]

Use whatever conventions require the least mousing to get things done, is the way I look at it -- I'm not a usability expert but I am an easily annoyed user. :wink:

Randall

I think Randall hits the nail twice, with the edge in the tail. As customer, I do not care what you as seller or designer like; I like to find things easy and am annoyed quick and out of your site even quicker. Always the big issue with designers; they never think about clients, only how cool it looks.

Some very interesting articles on usability under the following links. The guys company-institute did several studies on internet usability including following rapid eye movements of people reading webpages.

Basically, people mostly concentrate on the left, because that is where they expect the links, and anything looking like an add, certainly when on the right-hand side, is mostly ignored.

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/reading_pattern.html
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/banner-blindness.html
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/navigation-menu-alignment.html

[jmihawkins]

There is a duality:
1> for right-handed users, mousing all the way over to the left is subliminally counter-intuitive (and therefore annoying, but not overtly so)
2> but for all users, common expectation & habituated behavior comes first - standard e-comm convention is primary selections are on the left or the top

And yes a lot of designers get caught up in the 'cool' factor, rather than dealing with usability. If you're an artsy site or whatever, fine. But if you're selling and you want their money to become yours - then you got to cater to the buyer: make it easy, simple, and as expected. I really liked that book from 10 years back - Web Pages That Suck - a lot of straight to the point info, it's still apropos.

[johnfl68]

Hmmm - this is like the cue lines at Disney. When ever given a left or right choice, I always choose the left, as most people go to the right automatically. I almost always end up on the ride before the person that was at the same point in the line that went right. (Shhh - don't tell anyone this tip) :wink:

John

[Snarpy]

In the study below, the researchers found that users look for the navigation on the left at first, but after they become accustomed to your site, they don't show a preference.

McCarthy, J., Sasse, M., and Riegelsberger, J. 2004. Could I have the Menu Please? An Eye Tracking Study of Design Conventions. People and Computers, 2004, Edit 17, 401-414. http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/research/higherview/mccarthy_menu.pdf

Final (spring) final done!

[jmihawkins]

Hmmm - this is like the cue lines at Disney. When ever given a left or right choice, I always choose the left, as most people go to the right automatically. I almost always end up on the ride before the person that was at the same point in the line that went right. (Shhh - don't tell anyone this tip) :wink:

John

But isnt this more along the lines of drive on the right, walk on the right?

[jmihawkins]

In the study below, the researchers found that users look for the navigation on the left at first, but after they become accustomed to your site, they don't show a preference.

It's that 'become accustomed' that causes a lot of initial click-aways (and lost sales). You got to be big enuff, well-known enuff, and wanted enuff to support doing things too much different.

[Randall]

In the study below, the researchers found that users look for the navigation on the left at first, but after they become accustomed to your site, they don't show a preference. One of my sites is going to test the limits of that theory. When I have enough of it done to open it to the public, we can argue about the logic behind it. :wink:

Randall

[Andilinks]

...users look for the navigation on the left at first...Which would be my assumption as someone who uses a lot of websites. So a left hand menu would be the utilitarian choice, right hand the contrarian.

If it were simply a choice based on the greater probability of success I'd go with left hand menu. If success is not a factor then I'd go with the aesthetic choice.

[julieA]

Thanks for the responses. Since the site isn't mine, and SALES is the goal, we'll go with the expected. I'm have thought about this alot. I do a LOT of online shopping and although I prefer the right side navigation (because of my right-handedness) -I will go to a site that's got something I want regardless. Most of her first customers will be referred to the website from her vendor business (she goes to craft shows and events). Who knows what people really are thinking. Maybe, like me, they are just too busy to complain about the darn left hand navigation. For now, I think we'll play it safe and go with the Standards- left side wins.

[georgeek]

Thanks for the responses. Since the site isn't mine, and SALES is the goal, we'll go with the expected. I'm have thought about this alot. I do a LOT of online shopping and although I prefer the right side navigation (because of my right-handedness) -I will go to a site that's got something I want regardless. Most of her first customers will be referred to the website from her vendor business (she goes to craft shows and events). Who knows what people really are thinking. Maybe, like me, they are just too busy to complain about the darn left hand navigation. For now, I think we'll play it safe and go with the Standards- left side wins.Good choice, it's nearly always better to do what users prefer :)

I do a lot of multivariate split testing for clients and the clients web designers are always surprised when their beautiful aesthetic layout performs badly.

Understanding users and search engines is the key to a good ROI.

- George

[TigerLilly]

Julie, as both a customer and designer I find that being able to FIND the navigation is the most important thing. So many sites have only part of the navigation where you can find it when you enter the site and the rest is at the very bottom, and you have to scroll to get there, and it's in teeny tiny print. From a user stand point I prefer navigation at the top moving horizontally, and in a largish font, with the color legable for me to read with my glasses on (I'm over 50 so I can't see a thing with them off).

Red type drives me nuts as do black backgrouns, very very hard on old eyes.

[Randall]

Red type drives me nuts as do black backgrouns, very very hard on old eyes. Hard on some not-so-old eyes too. :ytrubeye:

I showed my current redesign project to my father, who we think has some variety of red-green color blindness. I'm trying to keep the important colors easy to distinguish: blue for clickable items, bright yellow backgrounds for special info.

Randall