Thank you for posting that link, that looks very interesting.

Before you criticize someone the way you did, you should ensure that the basis for your cricism is sound. In this case, it’s not, because the study described in that document is called “Cascading versus Indexed Menu Design”.

What that means is that it is a study of how users react to drop-down or fly-out menus (i.e. “cascading” menus), in comparison to the same hierarchy presented without use of a drop-down or fly-out menu (i.e. “Indexed”).

So, this study is not about vertical versus horizontal, it’s about Indexed versus Cascading.

There is however, some value to it, because it does provide evidence against my argument that drop-downs are more usable than fly-outs. But considering the age of the study, and the way the web has changed since that time, this study suffers from the same problems as the studies I quoted — opinions can be made, but nothing conclusive can be stated.

Although this study is dated (2003), I hope this gives you an insight about what usability is really about. And that is a lot of researching and testing. Never “expert” opinions.

When you write an article about what kind of navigation designers should prefer and use arguments that are seemingly based on research, usability practicioners that have a strong background in research immediately see that your arguments are not well grounded.

If you want to write an opinion article, just give your opinion about something. And if you want to use studies to back your opinion, make sure you interpret the studies properly.

i had the right hand vertical before the discussion even started!

i am still finishing it up – but i like it!
trying to keep with the minimal style.

.mike

I love your site! Right-hand vertical navigation — how interesting and ironic considering the topic of this debate!

.mike

I would agree with you on my later arguments for section two, in a bit of a rush to write the piece–which ended up being more of a stream of consciousness–I certainly lost some of my usual clarity.

At the end of the day, I’m very excited to see a reaction from the design community which can sometimes feel as if we’ve fallen in to a lull and put our learning and critical thinking on cruise control. As I said in the comments on Astheria, I’d love to see Smashing Magazine post more thought provoking opinion articles. Though, I do hope they label them as such in the future.

Cheers!

I definitely think you have a great eye for design and I appreciate that you tend to favor minimalism and proper use of white space, which I think gets lost on many ad-heavy sites these days.

On a side note, I actually have another article that will be published later on another site that discusses white space in design.