Re: Left vs. right alignment

Hello Laurie,

This resource from the Windows Vista User Experience guidelines answers
your questions, I believe. 
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa511279.aspx
And here is what the Apple Macintosh guidelines say about the layout of
secondary windows (warning, large PDF):
http://interface.free.fr/Archives/Apple_HIGuidelines.pdf (p. 196)

The basic idea is that users direct their 'gaze' from top left to bottom
right, so it makes most sense to put action buttons there. Windows makes
exceptions to these rules if there is hardly any information to process.
That is, in a simple prompt ("Do you want to save changes?") the command
buttons are centered.

Note that even such a seemingly basic thing as button alignment has
cultural connotations. For example, people speaking Arabic languages
would expect, say, command buttons to appear on the bottom left because
they read right-to-left (and top-to-bottom).

Hope this helps,

Mathijs Panhuijsen
Technical Writer
Tridion Development Labs BV

-----Original Message-----
From: ACM SIGCHI WWW Human Factors (Open Discussion)
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Laurie Roshak
Sent: Tuesday, April 17, 2007 18:36
To: [email protected]
Subject: Left vs. right alignment

I'm in the middle of a debate whether:

*	Should field labels should be left or right aligned with a text
field/drop-down list/etc.?
*	Should buttons on a primary page be left or right aligned with
the page content?
*	Should buttons on a secondary page be left or right aligned with
the page content?
*	Should buttons on a login page be left aligned or centered with
the text boxes?

 

Can someone point me to user research, best practices and/or style
guides that address these topics?

 

Laurie Roshak

Director of Product Management, User Experience

MX Logic Inc.

Direct: 720.895.4439

Fax: 720.895.5757

[email protected]

www.mxlogic.com <http://www.mxlogic.com> 

Named an "Emerging Vendor" by CRN
<http://www.mxlogic.com/news_events/in_the_news/abstracts/crn071906.cfm>


 


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