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In article <opsd9vzkdc6v6656 (AT) news (DOT) individual.net>, neal413 (AT) yahoo (DOT) com
enlightened us with...

On Mon, 13 Sep 2004 08:18:04 -0500, kaeli <tiny_one (AT) NOSPAM (DOT) comcast.net
wrote:

In article <opsd8x6xiw6v6656 (AT) news (DOT) individual.net>, neal413 (AT) yahoo (DOT) com
enlightened us with...
Which would you consider "best practice"?

#1, #3, or #5: on the left.

I think you misunderstood. By "in the flow" I mean as the page is rendered
without any style or positioning. So nothing's on the left of anything.

Ah, sorry, my bad.

In that case, #1.

--
--
~kaeli~
You feel stuck with your debt if you can't budge it.
http://www.ipwebdesign.net/wildAtHeart
http://www.ipwebdesign.net/kaelisSpace

Neal wrote:

1) Place the navigation to flow before the content.

Only if the navigation IS the content, i.e. the rest of the page is
decorative.

2) Place the navigation to flow after the content.

Only if it's important to you that the user read the content before
leaving the page AND if you think your opinion is more important than
that of the user, who may think otherwise. An example might be a page
that reads, "WARNING! Before proceeding with the next instructions, make
sure you have removed the dilithium crystals from the containment vessel!"

3) Place the navigation to flow before the content but add a link "Skip
to content" before the navigation.

Good for a home page where content is present, but returning visitors
will just be passing through on the way to the detail they already know
is under one of the navigation links.

4) Place the navigation to flow after the content but add a link "Skip
to site navigation" before the content.

My preference for most situations other than those described above.

In other words, as usual, "it depends".

Chris Beall

Neal neal413 (AT) yahoo (DOT) com wrote:

This is the braintrust, so I'd like to see your opinions...

Which would you consider "best practice"?

1) Place the navigation to flow before the content.
2) Place the navigation to flow after the content.
3) Place the navigation to flow before the content but add a link "Skip to
content" before the navigation.
4) Place the navigation to flow after the content but add a link "Skip to
site navigation" before the content.
5) Other.

As of now, I'd choose 4, but my opinion is malleable.

I would use any of the above and a whole range of other options depending
on the content and purpose of the page. Don't set rules you don't need.
Make the navigation serve the purpose of the site and fit the context of
the particular page.

--
eric
www.ericjarvis.co.uk
"live fast, die only if strictly necessary"

Neal <neal413 (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> wrote:

"Skip to <a ...>Site Navigation</a>" would of course be preferable. I
just used explabnatory language, not actual linking text.

But people actually _use_ "skip to..." links. Even on the
http://www.w3.org page: "Skip to Technologies", "Skip to News", "Skip to
Search".

It's not just a poor choice of link text. It's symptomatic. People fill
pages with mixed content, then - if they give a thought to accessibility
- throw in "skip to" links. It's like spaghetti programming and GOTOs.

--
Yucca, http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/

In message <BAg1d.25519$2s.16818 (AT) twister (DOT) nyroc.rr.com>, Beauregard T.
Shagnasty <a.nony.mous (AT) example (DOT) invalid> writes

Quoth the raven jake:

#3 or #4
Either will work OK, although #3 is the usual one, and hence the
one expected.

#3 is the "usual one" because many authors aren't aware they can place
things on the page with CSS positioning that don't "match" the linear
layout of the code.

Maybe.

Or more probably it's because 99% of the Web uses tables-based layouts
and so that's where things end up after linearization.

regards.
--
Jake