RIP Left Nav Bar: ? – 2007
June 18, 2007 in industry news, Learn, Websites
I don’t often delve into issues of web site design here, as there are a lot of variables that make such comments seem like picking on people. I see the role of this weblog to encourage, challenge and uplift. #
However, today I’m going to take a few minutes to wish a swift and well-deserved death to a staple of news web sites: The left-side navigation bar. #
For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, the left nav bar is the list of links to interior pages of a news site. It appears on the left side of the home page. You can see a living example of the left nav bar on the New York Times home page. (see image) #
As long as I’ve been viewing college media web sites, the left nav bar has been a constant companion. It’s time for this to change. I’m declaring war on the left nav bar. #
Why? You ask. Here are some reasons (in handy web-friendly bullet points): #
- It takes up valuable news space: The front page of a news web page is even more crowded with information than the front page of your average daily newspaper. Editors grapple for space on this prime territory to get their stories in front of the readers who visit the site.
- It takes up the prime real estate on a news web site. When you load a web page, what’s the first place you look? Chances are it’s top left – similar to the place people look on a printed page. If you’re loading that area of the screen with navigational aids, you’re taking away an important space for real content.
- It’s often confusing – I’ve rarely seen left nav bars that are thought out so that there are only a few links to relevant content. Look at the Times’ left nav bar. How can you figure out where you need to go from that?
Here’s WaPo’s latest redesign: #
Notice that the navigation is at the top of the page – where it should be, IMHO. #
Now, that’s not to say that there aren’t people doing interesting things with the left nav bar. For those, check out the Golden Gate XPress or the Cal State-Fresno site, where they link to multimedia from the left nav bar. #
Don’t get me wrong – I think you need a navigation bar on the front page, but you should move it to the right side of the page, or put it at the top of the page – using some DHTML for drop-down menus. #
Disagree? Feel free to drop a comment below. #
I think the temperature in hell just fell a couple of degrees…you used a Gannett example!
I'm not sure Golden Gate XPress is a good example of what you mean, although the Cal State-Fresno site is. On the Xpress site, the left column is not separated from the rest of the content or designated as navigation in any way. It holds modules that look like all the other sections on the page. It's a better example of doing navigation horizontally and using that left column for content.
We're actually switching from a horizontal navigation (which we've used for about 8 years) to a vertical one. We found that the vertical nav gives us quite a bit more flexibility when highlighting new, temporary features.
We've also tried using the left-hand rail to highlight new features. Problem is, according to our heat maps, no one clicks on them. Most people think they are advertising.
I think you're absolutely right about confusing left hand nav: it's easy to let it get out of hand.
But Wapo style dynamic menus have their own usability problems. The nav choices are hidden from view, they require that you correctly interpret the section buttons at the top of the page, and it's difficult to get to some options unless you have excellent mouse dexterity (the chasing-the-menu problem).
By the way, here's a decidedly frosty (but very interesting) take on the new washingtonpost.com: http://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-m…
I hate those nav bars. It's so annoying to have to scroll down and read every single link to find what you are looking for. Takes a lot of time that I don't want to spend.
[...] From a glance, I note that many of the sites seem to have (finally) abandoned the left nav bar (see RIP left nav bar ? – 2007 for background). [...]
[...] wrote about the demise of the left nav bar way back in 2007. With these redesigns, plus the numerous redesigns I’m seeing on college [...]
I agree with you totally. I think DHTML will help this navigation bar move to rightside of the page or on the top of the page. By the way great review.
I agree with you totally. I think DHTML will help this navigation bar move to rightside of the page or on the top of the page. By the way great review.
I agree with you totally. I think DHTML will help this navigation bar move to rightside of the page or on the top of the page. By the way great review.