E-Learning, NOT Web-Page Templates!
June 6, 2008 12:00 AM
My $.02: The e-learning convention is that the nav buttons are in lower right. That all came from the days when people were used to fixed page sizes. That was also the time of the "No scrolling" rule. WWW was not in high usage. Today, most people taking e-learning have some experience with web browsers. Horizontal scrolling is still an annoyance and to be avoided. Vertical scrolling is more common - especially in web pages which learners have more experience with. Still, keep it to a minimum. Don't make them scroll unless necessary but do make it possible. Putting the nav buttons in the lower right has the benefits of eye flow but has the distinct disadvantage of limiting the page size. I have created many courses where 98% of the pages were standard size but some were much longer. Had I had nav buttons located at the bottom, that would have presented a problem. Recent research has indicated only one principle here - be consistent - don't move them around. Once the learner gets used to the upper right, they are fine.I am NOT saying design e-learning like web pages, but web usage is setting the stage for where learners expect to see things. Nav menus along the side an the top. Most web pages do not use Next & Back but putting them with the rest of the nav buttons makes sense to the learner.
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