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Thread: horizontal vs. vertical navigation

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From: Nathalie Sequeira
Date: Mon, Aug 27 2012 3:11AM
Subject: horizontal vs. vertical navigation
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Hello all,

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

Thus my question:
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)

Or is it really as it would appear to us at first hearing, that if we
want people with cognitive disabilities to have equal access to websites
vertical navs are unavoidably a MUST?

Thanking you in advance for your views on this!
Nathalie

--
Nathalie Sequeira
************************
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www.n-faktor.net

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From: Nathalie Sequeira
Date: Wed, Aug 29 2012 1:10AM
Subject: Re: horizontal vs. vertical navigation
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From: Benjamin Hawkes-Lewis
Date: Wed, Aug 29 2012 1:49AM
Subject: Re: horizontal vs. vertical navigation
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On Wed, Aug 29, 2012 at 8:10 AM, Nathalie Sequeira < = EMAIL ADDRESS 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

From: Kornbrot, Diana
Date: Wed, Aug 29 2012 3:18AM
Subject: Re: horizontal vs. vertical navigation
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Wouldn't recommend horizontal if want to be interchangable with smart phone
Best
Diana

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

On Wed, Aug 29, 2012 at 8:10 AM, Nathalie Sequeira < = EMAIL ADDRESS 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 ADDRESS 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
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mobile: +44 (0) 740 318 1612
fax: +44 (0) 870 706 1445

From: Nathalie Sequeira
Date: Mon, Sep 03 2012 8:04AM
Subject: Re: horizontal vs. vertical navigation
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Hello Benjamin and Diana,

thanks for your takes on this.

>> 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?
The thinking is that is is easier to understand hierarchic structure
when presented as a vertical list.
Following that reasoning, a horizontal navigation in a way uses 2 axes,
once horizontally for the main points, then vertically, to display the
sub-topics.
Alas, it remains unclear HOW much more difficult horizontal navigation
actually is.

> 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.
Thanks for these, I think you have some very valid points there,
especially the distinction between nav items and shortness.
So perhaps deciding whether to dare a vertical navigation should depend
mainly on the complexity of information to be displayed (and there is no
absolute yes or no answer).
Following this logic, a simple site with only like 4 sections and no
subnav could do well horizontally, while a site that has a non - uniform
structure (some mainnav sections containing subnav while others don't)
may be more easily understandable as a vertical list.

If I find more tangible information on this I will definitely share here.

Thanks again,
Nathalie