Switch from right hand to left hand navigation

Convince me... why should I do this?

[spaceylacie]

Several very experienced webmasters have, in the past, questioned me about and recommended switching to left hand navigation. My navigation has been on the right side since the late 90's. I'm not convinced that I should change now. All my sites are experiencing a very steady and rapid growth. Don't fix what isn't broken?

I understand that I can use CSS to make search engines still see my content first, something that I didn't know about 7 years ago... but, I like my right hand navigation. I want visitors, not just SEs to see my content first.

So, convince me, why should I switch to left hand navigation?

[Demaestro]

I can give you a reason to not switch.

Because of the nature of how most people use their mouse, the mouse strokes of a user tend to come from the right hand of the screen and move inwards left. (For right handed people). This means that almost all the time they will be coming at their window from the right edge first.

I find it more convienent to have selectable items to the right so that there is less pulling the mouse to the far side of the screen to perform clicks.

That is my 2 cents though.

The reason to switch to the left is totally lost on me. I am experienced in web development and I have never heard an argument that left hand Nav is a better design then the right. I would argue the the right hand nav is the better design though.

[tedster]

I've even kept stats when I switched a site from left to right hand navigation -- and the site improved!

I think you have good reasons for being hesitant. Right hand nav also takes less mouse movement, and that makes it more natural for the user to explore a bit further. Especially when there is a nice hover effect, it becomes more tempting to check out this or that as it shows off under the cursor, which naturally rests on the right by the scrollbar.

Don't fix what isn't broken?

Just so!

[iamlost]

I am a RH nav type myself. Originally just because I thought it more 'natural' (my LH designer friends all disagreed ;-) and, at the time, as a rare, if not unique, layout to differentiate my sites.

Once 'heat maps' suggested left side, especially left side top, as prime real estate it seemed very poor business to put anything but revenue generators i.e. ads in that location.

Left for ads, right for nav has worked profitably for years.

[txbakers]

well, the only reason I see to put the nav on the left would be for consistent placement on the page.

The left side of the screen is fixed at 0,0, while the right side can hover based on screen width, etc.

Unless you use a fixed table width, or an absolute position css, the right nav will float. Which may not be a bad thing.

Also, for most English readers, the language flows left to right. If you look at this site, the banner logo is at the top left, the bread crumb navigation is left to right, the forum information is on the left, etc. Most everything is left justified.

Although, on the home page, the links to the individual forums are on the right.

if any of the elements of this page were reversed, it would look and feel awkward.

[rocknbil]

As one who has spent 10 or so years in printing and graphic design, then moved into the web, here is one reason: in the western cultures we read from upper left to lower right and this puts your tools where the eye lands first to begin building that familiarity right off the bat. So the left-nav concept probably comes from this graphic space orientation as we're still dealing with a largely rectangular space.

The other reason is that if you're using a fixed-width layout, anyone who views at less than your target resolution partially or completely loses the navigation links and has to scroll right, and we know how annoying that is. All you "700 standard" developers - my biggest client still uses a 15" monitor, he can afford better but just . . . hasn't.

Personally I like them top and bottom and leave the width for content, can I be more balanced on the fence? :-P

[spaceylacie]

In my case, I think I will stick with right hand navigation. I'm actually surprised by some of the responses here, I didn't expect all the pro right hand comments. I also like the fact that it separates my sites from others in the industry. I hadn't thought about where the cursor is normally positioned on the page when visiting a site, good point.

Thanks for the input.

[tedster]

in the western cultures we read from upper left to lower right and this puts your tools where the eye lands first

And this can also be a good argument for placing the information a user came looking for right there on the left, rather than using this prime real estate for navigation. Especially with the snap judgements that are naturally made by surfers, letting them know instantly that they are in the right place has value.

With left hand nav, it is common to add a background color to the nav area so it recedes and the eye is more attracted to the content area -- this is more in line with the idea that we DON'T want the new arrival to focus on the navigation right off the bat.

I didn't expect all the pro right hand comments.

It can be hard to sell to a client -- but where we've used it, I have never seen poor results.

[suzie250]

I built my main site with left navigation bacause that's what I was used to seeing on most other sites. Its the first place visitors look. Now that I am no longer an average computer user, I prefer right hand navigation.

I made my most recent site with right hand navigation for two very big reasons:

1) I was tired of moving my mouse so dang much across the screen all of the time. (This may not be such an issue for average Joe user, but for me, its irritating because of the amount of time I spend on the computer.)

2) The bots see that top left first and I wanted them (and my visitors) to see whatever was in that area as important.

I'll design any future sites with right hand navigation.

[ringsoft]

Stick with what works well for you.

I've alsways assumed - maybe wrongly - that website navigation tended to be either at the top or on the left because the alternatives (the bottom and the right) were where the scrollbars are located. By keeping site navigation separate from browser/chrome controls, it eliminates possible confusion between the two.

[Lobo]

I've done both and realistically as long as the navigation architechture is sound then it does not matter so much, can your user get everywhere from anywhere...

Although you can take HCI (human computer interaction) in to consideration... studies have proven that in over 90% of people their eyes follow the same pattern when looking at a website.. starting a top left, moving down the left handside then move up to top right and down .. that is the natural pattern that our eyes follow...

This is also why left hand navigation is most common, and not out of simple design etiquette...

So I would say if you want your users to see the options of navigation first then put it on the more usual left, if the nav' can take a secondary position then stick it on the right, ultimately even the newest web virgin will work it out in the end..