I have always thought that left-nav was the UX standard for left-to-right
languages (as opposed to Arabic, eg.: http://www.france24.com/ar/).

Personally, I feel that right-nav makes more sense across the board, due to
the fact that it is less distance to travel for right-handed people. But
the convention seems pretty set in stone. I am also not sure how screen
readers deal with right-nav - although i am guessing that there is no
problem there programming wise.

Blake

On Tue, Sep 16, 2014 at 3:24 PM, Brad Coffield <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

> Benjamin: "Unfortunately we have authors who want *three* columns plus
> left-nav..." LOL
>
> Margaret: Love the floating nav on that page. It's exciting that we'll be
> able to leverage Bootstrap with our guides now. Moving the entire library
> website to libguides CMS is looking more and more promising.
>
>
> Some more thoughts:
>
> I'm no UX expert but is it generally agreed that left-nav is the much
> better choice? It seems like it to me. Given current web wide conventions
> etc.
>
> One big issue to switching to left-nav in v2 is the amount of work it's
> going to take everyone to convert all guides to the new layout. Which is
> one of those things that both shouldn't matter (when looking at it in a
> principledness way - that is, "Whatever is best for the patrons! No matter
> what!) but also does matter (in a practical way - that is, "OMG we are all
> so busy being awesome").
>
> But part of me, when looking at other people's guides and my own, wonders
> if three columns isn't just a little TOO much for the user. How is one
> supposed to scan the page? What's the prioritized information? For a couple
> years now I've been eschewing three columns whenever possible. Do others
> agree that three columns can be info overload?
>
> Brad
>
> On Tue, Sep 16, 2014 at 4:32 PM, Benjamin Florin <
> [log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
>
> > We've been tinkering with our LibGuides template in preparation for an
> > eventual redesign of our site and guides, e.g.:
> >
> >     http://libguides.bc.edu/libraries/babst/staff
> >
> > Some of our guide authors weren't happy with the LibGuides
> > side-navigation's single-column limitation, so we made our own template,
> > moved {{guide_nav}} off to a left column, and wrote our own styles to
> make
> > the default top-nav display as left-nav. We've found that a 50/50 or
> 75/25
> > split next to the left nav looks pretty good.
> >
> > Unfortunately we have authors who want *three* columns plus left-nav...
> >
> > In general the LibGuides templating has felt modern and easy to work
> with.
> >
> > Ben
> >
> >
> > On Mon, Sep 15, 2014 at 3:18 PM, Brad Coffield <
> > [log in to unmask]>
> > wrote:
> >
> > > Hi all,
> > >
> > > I'm finally diving into our Libguides v2 migration and I'm wondering if
> > > anyone would be willing to share their experience/choices regarding
> > > templating. (Or even some code!)
> > >
> > > I'm thinking left-nav is the way to go. Has anyone split the main
> content
> > > column into two smaller columns? Done that with a column-width-spanning
> > box
> > > atop the main content area? Any other neato templates ideas?
> > >
> > > We are in the process of building a "style guide" for all libguides
> > authors
> > > to use. And also some sort of peer-review process to help enforce the
> > style
> > > guide. I'm thinking we are going to want to restrict all authors to
> > > left-nav templates but perhaps the ideal solution would be to require
> > > left-nav of all but to have a variety of custom left-nav templates to
> > > choose from.
> > >
> > > Any thoughts are much appreciated!
> > >
> > > Warm regards,
> > >
> > > Brad
> > >
> > > --
> > > Brad Coffield, MLIS
> > > Assistant Information and Web Services Librarian
> > > Saint Francis University
> > > 814-472-3315
> > > [log in to unmask]
> > >
> >
>
>
>
> --
> Brad Coffield, MLIS
> Assistant Information and Web Services Librarian
> Saint Francis University
> 814-472-3315
> [log in to unmask]
>



-- 
Blake L. Galbreath
Systems Librarian
Eastern Oregon University
One University Boulevard
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(541) 962.3017
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