I am working on customizing a template for someone. In your opinion, does the navigation column look better on the left or the right?

Navigation on right:
http://www.ideaessence.com/mullaneylawoffices/

Navigation on left:
http://www.ideaessence.com/revision/

Thanks.

i think left looks good then right.

Go left :)

Generally you want the content to be the first thing you lay eyes on. Since the eye naturally starts at the left for us westerners that is where they suggest you put the content and is the reasoning behind right navigation.

That being said if I ever put content to the left I put the navigation to the top. Category listings etc. work for blogs but page navigation on semi-static pages should be upfront and presentable...

In short...
Go left ^_^

^^^ What ariolander said.

If you only have one sidebar, content should go on the left. Another consideration is that search engines will see the content first, and therefore gives you some SEO benefits.

^^^ What ariolander said.

If you only have one sidebar, content should go on the left. Another consideration is that search engines will see the content first, and therefore gives you some SEO benefits.

Well, even if the sidebar is on the right, you can put it above the main content in the html using css. But I agree, it should be on the left.

Thanks. Left it is.

Speaking of SEO rember when coding just because the menu appears on the left does not mean that it has to be coded first or to the left.

You can have the SEO benefits of left hand content (IE content being first in your code) but still have the naigation on the left as well!

Put down your content and just CSS float the nav bar to the left so people will see the nav first but robots will read the content first.

Best of both worlds my friend!

if its really important navigation then pretty much every major site has it on the left.

Stay safe - the eye is used to the left - a bit like driving!

I think it looks better on the left.

Left was much more appealing :)

Nice looking design there!!

I was reading this article earlier today: The Case Against Vertical Navigation (http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/01/11/the-case-against-vertical-navigation/)

Somewhere in the article they state:

In a study called Eyetrack III: What We Saw When We Looked Through Their Eyes (http://www.poynterextra.org/eyetrack2004/main.htm), results showed that top navigation performed better than left-side navigation. Interestingly, according to the results, even right-side navigation had better success than left navigation.

Personally, I avoid vertical navigation if I can.

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