SIGIA-L Mail Archives: RE: SIGIA-L: Upside Down L
RE: SIGIA-L: Upside Down L
From: Peter Merholz (peterme_at_peterme.com)
Date: Wed Nov 08 2000 - 10:26:06 EST
As we've engaged in a redesign of Epinions, I did what I could to steer us
away from the inverted L. User tests showed us that people pretty much
ignore what's in the "L" part of the page until the last possible moment, if
then. The web-wide convention, it seems, has made those areas pretty much
dead to the eye. If all you're putting are links to other places, then it
can be fine... We found if we tried to introduce anything 'functional' into
the left-hand column, no one would see it.
I think a good maneuver is to shift away from left-hand column and toward
left-hand module. To not have the navigation go allllll the way to the
bottom, but take up only as much room as necessary. Amazon shows a kind-of
example of what I mean:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/172594/ref=e_hp_r_cs_2_2/104-0
110871-7168748
(imagine the little nav box as one instead of two columns. Or, hell, keep it
at two.)
--peter
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-sigia-l_at_asis.org [mailto:owner-sigia-l_at_asis.org]On Behalf Of
Matt Laliberte
Sent: Wednesday, November 08, 2000 5:41 AM
To: sigia-l
Subject: SIGIA-L: Upside Down L
I've seen several different variations on the = Upside Down L navigation
scheme, and I'm wondering what our listserv = members think. Should global
navigation operate through the top nav, = and sub-level navigation through
the side, or vice versa? This is, of = course, contingent upon the fact that
a client wants such a structure = to their site, but with that in mind what
do you all think? What is the = best way to approach the Upside Down L
scheme, seeing as how it is the = dominant scheme on the web today?
Matt Laliberte
Information Architect
www.flywire.com
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