Right-Justified Navigation Menus Impede Scannability
A new article by Jakob Nielsen addresses a couple of usability issues with right-justified menus.
Aligning a navigation menu with the right margin might look cool, but the resulting ragged left margin severely reduces the speed with which users can scan the menu and select their preferred options.
Jakob Nielsen isn’t exactly qualified to speak on the subject of things looking cool, but the example from the University of Michigan who changed their menu shortly after reading this article is a good example of how to increase usability at the expense of elegance.
When designing for usability and esthetics, I find it most effective to focus more heavily on general typography rules of the print world, i.e. leading, kerning, point size, emphasis, etc. How might you have addressed the scannability and other legibility issues of these menus without ending up with an uglier menu?
There is much to be said for the usability issues of horrifyingly ugly things. A dead ton-ton carcas may be super snugly at night, but I’d still opt for the quilt my grandma made me. Non-antialiased text is my personal festering carcass.
High-resolution photos are available for download
Comment by Robert — April 30, 2008 @ 2:19 pm
Thats a good thing to know. As maybe your menu is something you don’t want to be scanned quickly.
Luke Wroblewski talks about this in designing forms too. (Presentation PDF) It all depends on what you are designing for. You might want someone to be more careful and slow down in areas and fly through others.
I find that usability is most important when there is more task / form based things going on. You also have to look at who is coming to your site… Is it someone who is dedicated enough to get through some minor usability issues? OR Is it someone new to your site and needs to get what they want quickly. It’s not always easy to balance. I do agree though that traditional rules of typography in the print world are very helpful in accomplishing this.
Good post! Thanks for reminding me about this.
Comment by Jordan — April 30, 2008 @ 7:10 pm