[WEB4LIB] Web design question

[Donna Reed]

We use right aligned on our community network in levels under the index
page and get lots of thanks from visitors using lynx.

Donna

On Tue, 14 Dec 1999, Andrew Mutch wrote:

> Regular readers of Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox column will be familiar with a
> recent column where Mr. Nielsen explained that bad designs can become defacto
> web standards if enough web sites adopt them.  See:
> 
> http://www.useit.com/alertbox/991114.html
> 
> One example he provided was the blue "link" color, which he argues is a poor
> color choice in terms of readability.  However, because it is essentially a
> standard, a site that uses other colors will suffer in usability because web
> users are conditioned to view blue colored text as hyperlinks.  Another
> example he gave was the left-justified navigation menu.  Although Fitt's Law
> [a very interesting usability concept! - see the link in the column] argues
> that a right-justified navigation menu will be more efficient for users, so
> many sites now use the left-justified menu that is has become a standard.
> 
> Still, I was curious if any libraries use a right-aligned navigation menu in
> their web sites.  Our current site design uses a left-aligned menu on the home
> page [without the colored bar] but it does make sense that a right-aligned
> menu would function better for visitors.  Mr. Nielsen noted that the
> left-aligned menu is also counter-productive in that Western-readers focus
> from left to right and the most important content should be appear on the left
> side of the screen.  On our web site, our highlights, like remote access,
> currently sit on the right side of the screen and it does now occur to me that
> this information which should be the first thing that visitors see is probably
> the last they see.  So, if anyone has a right-aligned site, could they pass
> their URL along?
> 
> Andrew Mutch
> Library Systems Technician
> Waterford Township Public Library
> Waterford, MI
> 
> 
> 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Donna Reed                            Multnomah County Library
Community Information System                TEL (503) 248-5238
Program Specialist		            FAX (503) 248-5226
         
          E-mail: donnare at nethost.multnomah.lib.or.us
                http://www.multnomah.lib.or.us/