[WEB4LIB] Web design question

[Thomas Dowling]

> Still, I was curious if any libraries use a right-aligned navigation
menu in
> their web sites.

Two different OhioLINK interfaces use right-hand navigation bars, our
research databases and our Electronic Journal Center.  Unfortunately,
they're licensed services and I can't give a URL you'll be able to use.
For what it's worth though, here are a couple of reasons we went with
them.

The first service replaced services that had native vt100 interfaces, and
we needed to provide a greater degree of support for vt100 (i.e. Lynx)
users than would typically be the case.  In almost any left-hand
navigation bar, the markup for the bar comes before the "real" content of
the page, and it's not uncommon for that real content to start 60 to 80
lines down the page.  Using a right-hand bar puts all the links below the
serious content (and as a plus that only benefits Lynx users, the site
employs <LINK> throughout, an HTML 2.0 element that the bigger browsers
never saw fit to implement.  So Lynx users actually have navigational
tools other browsers don't provide).

Another advantage to right hand bars is that, if the bar does not need to
extend the entire length of the page, it's less disruptive to play around
with the right margin than the left margin.

Finally--and you can decide for yourself if this favors a right-hand bar
or not--browsers are increasingly adding a lot of panes to their windows:
search engines, favorites/hotlists, history, etc.  Personally, I think
these panes obscure just where the left-hand edge of the HTML page is (and
they're about the first thing I turn off in a new browser).



Thomas Dowling
OhioLINK - Ohio Library and Information Network
tdowling at ohiolink.edu