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I am designing a web site that will that showcase a bunch of vacation pictures. It will have a navigation menu (consisting of 13 rectangular images that can be clicked). I am wondering what the best layout for the menu would be. Is it better to have such a menu across the top of the page, or along the left side of the page? Either method isn't perfect:
- If I had the menu across the top of the page, the menu would be about 770 pixels wide, since there are 13 items in it. Many users would have to maximize their browser window to keep the horizontal scroll bar from appearing.
- If I had the menu going down the left side of the page, there would be a column of empty space (about 120 pixels wide -- the width of the menu) down the page. This may not be too attractive.
I also thought about using frames and having the menu in a frame on the left side. That would have the advantage of keeping the menu always in view, so that the user wouldn't have to scroll all the way back up to the top of the page to go to a different page. There also wouldn't be the appearance of too much wasted space under the menu, since that frame wouldn't scroll. But then frames seem to be frowned upon, so I probably won't do that.
Thanks for any input.
SOunds like the left side is your best bet. I wouldn't worry too much about the 'empty space' beneath the nav column: Most sites have that and it really is fairly standard.
I wouldn't use frames but I would certainly put a text link version of the menu in the footer of each page which would ease your scrolling concerns.
Nick
SN
