[thelist] Navigation preferences

[isaac]

> I'm just about to start the redesign of the company I work for's site and
> was wondering what the preference is for navigation - top or left?????

It depends entirely on the creative brief, visual assets, etc.

There are advantages and disadvantages to both methods.

For example, horizontal navigation suits a stacked approach, but won't
handle many lengthy nav elements. It also grabs vertical space which is
often more critical than horizontal space (consider display area ratio). In
addition to that, it might prove difficult to handle adding extra elements.

Vertical navigation won't handle single, long elements well, but can work
for a boxed layout. It's often easier to add to.

I'd guess that users are, by now, more or less comfortable with either
approach.


Often, I favour splitting a jumble of navigation into elements which pertain
directly to a site (search, sitemap, etc), and those that pertain to the
business (about us, contact, etc).

Examples:

I've used a horizontal navigation here http://www.keydd.com.au/ because
there are a finite number of short elements which are unlikely to change.

Whereas in this case http://www.energyres.com.au I've used a vertical
navigation because it's a growing list with some lengthy names.


More of my recent horizontal navigations:
http://www.seafront.com.au/ (Due to finite, short elements)
http://www.aicproperties.com/
http://www.mediamakeup.com.au/ (Sub-listings are vertical however)

More of my recent vertical navigations:
http://www.barossawinetrain.com.au/
http://www.beaumont-tiles.com.au/
http://www.mdtc.asn.au/ (Some horiz, but mostly vertical)
http://www.mallyons.com/ (Hardly a typical vertical navigation though!)
http://www.drawline.com.au/


One of my designs that really favours neither horizontal or vertical is, of
course, http://evolt.org/ :)


isaac

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