Saturday, September 13, 2008

Moving the sidebar from left to right

I just discovered that it was easy to move the sidebar from left to right. If anyone has a preference, please let me know through the comments to this post.

Thanks.
Best regards
-Ray


Keywords: lawyer digital copyright law online internet law legal download upload peer to peer p2p file sharing filesharing music movies indie independent label freeculture creative commons pop/rock artists riaa independent mp3 cd favorite songs intellectual property portable music player

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

i would prefer right side, personally, but it really does not affect the content in any way. if it isn't broken...

-bo

Anonymous said...

right

Anonymous said...

Research shows people scan from top right and then the rest of the page, so you put your most important stuff there. I would say your new entries are your most important stuff, so I say right as well.

Anonymous said...

Ha ... when I read the title of this article I thought it was referring to attorneys having a private conversation with a judge.

Anonymous said...

Right seems more natural.

Naturally

David Donahue said...

While I agree that content and websites are scanned left to right (by English readers), I think your existing graphical design and branding/identity looks and works better with the sidebar being on the left.

Not saying there couldn't be improvement to the design, perhaps in decluttering the sidebar or re-ordering things, but I wouldn't change the foundation unless it looked more reminsent of the old identity/appearance.

Anonymous said...

From and Oldphart in Kansas:
I must be oldfashioned then....I read headings on the top left and migrate down the left column. I am also of the opinion (since this subject matter is important to me) any presentation changes would have minimal impact on my daily consumption of Mr. Beckerman's blog.

Anonymous said...

I say right as well, it threw me for a loop for a moment.

raybeckerman said...

David, can you give me more detail about the 'decluttering' of the sidebar?

Anonymous said...

For whatever it's worth, standard HCI guidelines say people read top to bottom, left to right, as you would expect.

Also:
1. There are two search boxes. Can you remove one?
2. The vertical orange bar is right next to the sidebar text. Can you add a bit of margin or padding to the sidebar?

Minami

Anonymous said...

Ray, one problem with the sidebar is it's not clear when one section of it ends and another begins. Maybe you could use either headers, <h2>, or horizontal rules, <hr />.

-dp

Anonymous said...

Something else to try. In the top bar, where you have *Home Page *Index of Litigation Documents *How RIAA Litigation Works *Directory of Defense Lawyers *Recent Posts *Archives * Defense Funds * Quotes from Decisions *Links *Non-RIAA music, try putting an extra blank space or two between each item. For readability. You'll probably have to use the code for blank space, &nbsp;.

YT