Posted by Bernhard Sturm on 08/07/07 15:54

David Mark wrote:
> On Aug 6, 11:16 am, Dylan Parry <use...@dylanparry.com> wrote:
>> I've been wondering lately about navigation and accessibility. There are
>> two places that the navigation can "live":
>>
>> 1) Before the content;
>> 2) After the content
>>
>> But which is best from an accessibility point of view? I used to think
>
> After the content.
>

interesting thinking, but what happens when you follow a search engine
result list and end up on a subpage? You would first see or hear only
the content without knowing if the site has actually the content you
were looking for. I tend to have favor a more structured approach: show
me the structure (hence navigation) of a site, and then what I will get
content wise. I always put an (invisible) metanavigation to the content
and menus on each page:

* skip to content
* skip to navigation

- About us
- Our Products
- Where to find us

Here is our content

This seems to me the most logical way as it follows a well known
structured approach (first thing in a book is the table of contents,
first thing on each elevator exit in a building are signs what can be
found on each level).
If you put it the other way round, you will force people to search
actively for the navigation, which seems to me a wrong approach.
(Although Nielsen would have another opinion on this, but he assumes
that users are first looking at the content and _then_ at the
navigation, so it all bases on this assumption :-)

cheers
bernhard

--
www.daszeichen.ch
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