On Sep 17, 2008, at 7:41 PM, Brett Lutchman wrote:
Ok everyone jump on the bandwagon we're leaving in 10 minutes.
Hey, I'm not trying to gang up on you, Brett. I was already sitting on the bus when you stepped on. I'm sorry if I offended, but it sounded as if you were brushing everyone off that was disagreeing by saying, "well, you're all designing websites, and that's different." I think the issue is pretty fundamental.
Another 100 people could jump in the convo and say the same about the Previous being on the left and Next on the right, it's not going to change the my past usability tests and a decade of interaction design experience- although I will always be a student of usability.
I wasn't trying to convince you that you're wrong. You know your users better than I do. But your test results and experience don't mean that your solution applies everywhere else.
A common mistake that many amateur North American usability 'experts' make is assuming everyone goes from left to right.
I think the majority of us probably are aware that the left to right, top to bottom flow only applies to cultures that read in that direction. The users of all of the applications I have designed thus far happen to fall into that bucket.
Whether the Next link is an actual button and the Previous is a hyperlink, it is commonly already understood that the user knows that some form of moving forward is at the bottom. If they look bottom/right and see that it's not there, Low and Behold, they simply look to the left and the Next button smacks them right in the face...no harm done and the user simply moves on.
But isn't that a break in the flow as you're trying to avoid? For many of us, that would be the flow for the majority of our users.
Especially when a form is Left Justified for readability, users will naturally look to the left to proceed forward.
I must disagree. Perhaps your users do, but I cannot believe that this is in any way "natural" for "North American" users. There would have to be other elements at play to direct the user's attention.
Speaking of top and bottom, I just happened to think of a UI I designed not long ago that placed the previous and next buttons above the content. Why? Because that was the place that made the most sense for them given the rest of the UI. Of course, in that particular case, they were not the primary means of navigation.
There are many things that can influence the direction of attention. I would suggest that reading direction is a good starting place for deciding where to place previous and next buttons, but the designer must consider all of the influences to determine the best location.
Best, Jack Jack L. Moffett Interaction Designer inmedius 412.459.0310 x219 http://www.inmedius.com Design is like California. No one is born there. -Dick Buchanan ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
