Boris wrote:
While I don't know of any clear recommendation to put a navigation bar not on the right side in my opinion it violates Jakob Nielsen's rule "Do the same as everyone else" (see #10 of "Ten Good Deeds in Web Design" at http://www.useit.com/alertbox/991003.html). There have been some links posted to websites that have the navigation on the right side. However I would rather follow the mainstream. Look at all the explorer-style windows in your operating system: Navigation is always on the top and on the left. If you really want to make an exception and put the navigation bar on the right side you need a strong reason to come up with something unusual.
What a specious argument for conformity :-( But since you are referencing Jakob Nielsen.. I suggest you take a look at the website for his company "Nielson Norman Group" (http://www.nngroup.com/). Where you will notice that text on the left with navigation on the right is the norm. Here's one example.. http://www.nngroup.com/reports/about/ "About Us" (presenting company info on corporate websites): Usability Research Report from Nielsen Norman Group -- -- Grafik - Don't Assume Anything -- Redshift Software, Inc. - http://redshift-software.com -- rrivera/acm.org - grafik/redshift-software.com -- 102708583/icq - grafikrobot/aim - Grafik/jabber.org