Posted by Chris F.A. Johnson on 08/20/06 20:02

On 2006-08-20, Rik wrote:
> Luigi Donatello Asero wrote:
>> Are there any studies about whether it is easier for a user to read
>> a menu on the left or on the right of a webpage?
>
> Yes, because people are used to it, the left is preferred. People scan a
> webpage in an F-like pattern it seems. Google Nielsen & F-pattern. It seems
> to show the right column is hardly ever checked.

Like much of Nielsen's stuff, it raises as many questions as it
answers. He often makes some excellent points mixed with a lot of
nonsense.

In his article,
<http://www.useit.com/alertbox/reading_pattern.html>, the examples
do show hot spots on items in the right-hand column.

In this article, <http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=2776>, the example
shown does not exhibit the F-pattern. It shows the viewer reading
the right column, because that's where the information is.

What his research seems to show is that the eye pattern is
influenced by the layout of the page, not by a predtermined
pattern.

--
Chris F.A. Johnson <http://cfaj.freeshell.org>
===================================================================
Author:
Shell Scripting Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach (2005, Apress)

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