At 17:13 Uhr +0100 08.03.2000, Sinclair Andersen wrote:
>Hello!
>
>Well, apart from usability, I have Middle Eastern & Egyptian history as a
>hobby of mine.. And have noticed that the rather common "decoration" tends
>to end up on the right side of the page, instead of left, even if the text
>is in English.
>As an example: http://touregypt.net/ (Official site of the Egyptian Minsitry
>of Tourism)
>So, yes, I think it's likely a cultural thing.
>

...  and it is a design issue, too, which depends on the decision,
      which parts of the page should catch the user's attention !!

The attention given to areas of print pages has been investigated thoroughly
for placements of ads and for newspaper layout (normally by eye tracking
or/and by highest recall factor).
I have read only about investigations with European or North American
test persons. There the findings show the highest attention for the upper
left quadrant, the lowest for the lower left and upper right quadrants.

Taken that the content of a web page should catch the attention of the
user, then it would be logical to place the less important navigation
areas in the upper right quadrant (the lower left quadrant is not usable,
because this area can often be reached only by scrollowing).

Peter



Prof. Dr. Peter Gorny
                Informatics Dept. - C. v. Ossietzky University of Oldenburg
                Computer Graphics & Human-Computer Interaction Unit

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