Boxes And Arrows : The Design Behind the Design

Hello Kevin
Sorry – but I can´t give you a clear answer – because it depends on …
There have been many questions about what is best in terms of usability. In particular there have been two issues: where should navigation bars be located? And what sort of navigation is best for retracing your steps? Guess what. Those answers are still up in the air, even after all studies I got to know.
It is popularly assumed that your page’s main navigational menu should be anchored on the left side of your website. Different studies showed that fully one-third of high traffic websites have left-justified navigation, often with site identification or more navigation along the top of the screen, in what is known as “Inverted-L formation”. But though the “Inverted-L” is common, does that mean it is necessary?
A study in Razorfish, Germany examined the difference between right and left side navigation. Researchers asked: is one side better than the other? They tested two groups, and had one side use navigation that was on the left side of the screen, and the other use navigation on their right. The test subjects were timed in five tasks. The researchers hypothesized that those using right side navigation would finish faster, because so many users are right handed. In fact, there was no significant difference between the times of the two groups.
Practically, left-justified navigation assures that even if the web page is too large to be viewed all at once, the navigation will be seen. If it is on the right, there is a chance it may be cut off and the user would have to scroll over to find it. Also practically, Western users read from left to right, so the upper left hand corner would be the first thing they see.
The Razorfish study tested both left and right justified navigation, and in their tests made sure that the entire screen was always visible, eliminating the possibility that a user would have to scroll over. With this problem eliminated, they discovered that the mean of completion times for tasks on either side differed by less than four seconds. During their debriefing interviews, participants did not express any particular frustration with the right-side navigation. So the test concluded that there was no significant impact on website usability if the navigation was on the left or right hand side.
However, usability and user behavior are often enhanced by familiarity. Even if something is easy to use, if it is also familiar, it becomes even easier to use.
If I were you I would try to display your “same local navigation” on the right. … but I don´t know your project, client, subject, product and your user – … as I said before it depends on :-) cheers ___ holger

Web Page Layout: A Comparison Between Left- and Right-justified Site Navigation Menus
James Kalbach and Tim Bosenick* || Razorfish Germany
http://jodi.tamu.edu/Articles/v04/i01/Kalbach/

Hi

Before offering my suggestion.
I am assuming that the main Nav is primary Navigation, Sub Nav is Secondary Nav and Local Nav is Utility Nav.

I accept with Holger on the point of inverted L for Primary and Secondary.

But feel that the Local Nav be on top. This is well taken into account that in the present scenario horizontal scroll bar will never exist.

If there is a Teritiary Nav, we could have it in the right.

Hi Holger
Your view on my suggestion…

Hi Kevin

Expect a clearer picture from your end before suggesting anything that could be useful to you…

Ganesan, I accept and second your point of view with what I understood.

But I would like to reiterate that we should stop visualizing a navigation structure beyond 3-4 levels. Idealy, we should be considering anything comes up at the 4th level or beyond in the nav struture to be re-constructed.

Shri