WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: horizontal vs. vertical navigation

for

From: Kornbrot, Diana
Date: Aug 29, 2012 3:18AM


Wouldn't recommend horizontal if want to be interchangable with smart phone
Best
Diana


On 29/08/2012 08:49, "Benjamin Hawkes-Lewis" < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

On Wed, Aug 29, 2012 at 8:10 AM, Nathalie Sequeira < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> I am currently needing to decide between horizontal and vertical
> navigation for a website redesign.
>
> To make sure a maximum amount of people will be able to access the
> information with ease, we have asked our local People First organization
> which of the two models is more easily navigable for people with
> cognitive difficulties.
>
> While their confirmation that vertical navigation is definitely easier
> to understand makes sense

Interesting. What's the thinking here?

Consider that many popular websites use horizontal navigation for
moving between major areas of the site. There is perhaps a usability
cost to departing from widely adopted interface patterns.

> , in international circles I see lots of
> horizontal navigation being adopted even on People First sites.

Indeed.

> What are your experiences on how difficult horizontal navigation really is?
> Is there anything to keep especially in mind when designing a horizontal
> navigation to be as inclusive as possible? (obvious things such as
> underlying semantic markup, static subnavigation etc. aside)

Some off-the-cuff (likely fairly obvious) suggestions:

* Make sure the distinction between different items in the navigation
is clearly visually marked.
* Ensure visible keyboard focus.
* Keep the navigation short.
* Avoid dropdowns.

--
Benjamin Hawkes-Lewis
Emeritus Professor Diana Kornbrot
email: <EMAIL REMOVED>
web: http://dianakornbrot.wordpress.com/
Work
School of Psychology
University of Hertfordshire
College Lane, Hatfield, Hertfordshire AL10 9AB, UK
voice: +44 (0) 170 728 4626
fax: +44 (0) 170 728 5073
Home
19 Elmhurst Avenue
London N2 0LT, UK
voice: +44 (0) 208 444 2081
mobile: +44 (0) 740 318 1612
fax: +44 (0) 870 706 1445