I've noticed that Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, and Ebay all have their login boxes on the right. Amazon's is on the left, though.
Does anyone know why the right side seems to be the 'right' way to go?
+2
A:
Generally speaking most sites shove the most important top level navigation into the upper right. So naturally something as important as logging into the site falls to that location as well. Since the logo for the site goes to the upper left, the spot most likely to not misbehave no matter what browser you are viewing a site in...the only remaining most seen spot on the page is naturally in the upper right!
There are lots of books on usability as too why this has occurred. There are also many studies regarding where peoples eye's gravitate too most frequently on a site which has led to these locations being chosen. Actual scientific facts behind these layouts.
Why is amazons where it is...more research I guess!
Andrew Siemer
2009-06-23 21:33:05
Good points, thanks. The only thing is that many of these login boxes aren't in the upper-right, but the middle of the right.
fig
2009-06-23 21:35:28
A:
Amazon's is on the right for me. It's just what has become the norm. Now everyone is trained to looked there.
Read Don't Make Me Think, you can get it used for $6. It goes into stuff like that.
Galen
2009-06-23 21:33:41
Good point about it becoming the norm. Guess that in itself can become the reason.
fig
2009-06-23 21:38:40
A:
It's all about visibility and design preferences.
No one said the right side is the way to go.
Sev
2009-06-23 21:34:29
A:
Both Google and Yahoo put their ads in the rightmost area and their content on the left. I think having your content on the left makes some sense, as you'll naturally start reading from the edge.
Gab Royer
2009-06-23 21:39:41
A:
Since Western audiences read left-to-right, the first thing they look at is the upper left corner. Therefore, the most important piece of information goes there, whether its your logo, a login box, or anything else.
Login is usually important and shouldn't be lost or hidden, though, so upper right is next best.
Gabriel Hurley
2009-06-23 21:44:57
A:
i'd say... the login / subscription is usually on the right side so that the mouse can be close by when coming back up from the webpage using the scrollbar.
m_oLogin
2009-06-23 21:56:45
A:
I've never thought about this, but now I have. I don't see much significance in whether a login is on the right or left. Rather I think it depends on the content.
On Gmail it seems the content is important and the login is secondary. They are showing what Gmail is and provide a login on the right for existing users or to sign up.
The same for Hotmail and Yahoo! It might be that placing the login before you tell users what they are looking at is not as effective.
When the login is the only thing on the page then I think most sites will place it on the left or center of the page as we scan pages from left to right, top to bottom.
When a page contains much more than just a login then a login link usually appears at the top right of the page.
A lot of banks have their login on the left.
metanaito
2009-06-24 00:17:29
A:
Regardless of why they do it, they have set a pattern. In some ways a prevailing pattern can make it difficult to offer other ways, regardless of independent merit.
An example of this could be the location of the ignition on cars. In America at least, there's no particular requirement for where it belongs, but in almost every car, it is located either on the right side of the steering column, or on the dash board, slightly right of the steering column. Most drivers would have a difficult time of locating the ignition if it were located any place else.
Compare this to the location of the hazard light switch, which in older cars, has been located on either side of the steering column, any place on or under the dash board, or on the console. It is very difficult to find this important device on these cars, if the driver is not already familiar with that particular car. Many newer cars are putting the switch on the top of the steering column, in plain sight of the driver most of the time, but this pattern is not yet well established.
Long story Short, If there's a predominant pattern, you should probably have a very good for doing something different, or else your users will curse you for it.
TokenMacGuy
2009-06-24 00:53:52
A:
Login positioning just needs to be prominent within the immediately viewable space on the screen across users' supported resolutions.
Some sites place the login on the right, as it is the only significant functionality on those pages so users will find it. This allows the focal point to be some advertising or the site logo in the most prominent left position.
It also provides simple but important logic: western audiences read left to right so they do the following:
- Logo on the left (what I am logging into)
- Login on the right next to the Logo.
I haven't seen any real standards around this aspect - just familiar positioning practices amongst large web apps.
ForerMedia
2009-07-13 09:49:16