Why are links on the left side of the screen (usually) and the scroll bar on the right side?

Question

Can we people in America not do one thing that actually makes sense?

It is so inefficient to have the scroll bar so far away from where the links are usually located (and the back button for that matter).

Is there a reason?

Answer 1

Well, you've got three different questions here:

1. What's with the right-handed scrollbar?

This site gives a very detailed answer:

http://www.comp.lancs.ac.uk/computing/users/dixa/papers/scrollbar/

It goes through the history and development of the right-handed scrollbar, and comes to this conclusion: "The right-hand side looks right because to grab a scrollbar on the left, or to press a button on the left would mean your hand would have to move across the screen. Wait – of course your hand doesn’t really have to move across the screen, the mouse does, but it feels as if it would have to! In fact, for a touch screen, light pen or stylus the right-hand side is a good idea, but not on-screen."

If you've evolved enough to realize (as you seem to!) that a right-handed scrollbar is a little inefficient (you remind me of the fastest typist in the world, who uses a Dvorak keyboard instead of a standard QWERTY one) there's always something like this to experiment with:

http://handheld.softpedia.com/get/System-Utilities/LeftScroll-7380.shtml

2. What's with the links at the left?

You're quite right to question this: "The usability of two Web page layouts was directly compared: one with the main site navigation menu on the left of the page, and one with the main site navigation menu on the right. Sixty-four participants were divided equally into two groups and assigned to either the left- or the right-hand navigation test condition. Using a stopwatch, the time to complete each of five tasks was measured. The hypothesis that the left-hand navigation would perform significantly faster than the right-hand navigation was not supported. Instead, there was no significant difference in completion times between the two test conditions. This research questions the current leading Web design thought that the main navigation menu should be left justified. "

http://jodi.tamu.edu/Articles/v04/i01/Kalbach/

And here's the original reasoning: "There is a simple, practical aspect to the inverted-L navigation that has contributed to its popularity. Web pages can be, and often are, larger than the visible display area of a browser. If a Web page is longer than the user's viewable browsing area, a vertical scrollbar appears; if a page is wider, a horizontal scrollbar appears. The far upper-left corner of any Web page, however, is always visible. That is, a Web page unfolds starting in the upper left moving to the lower right. As the visible area of a Web page varies in size from user to user due to different browser sizes, variable amounts of the page layout are displayed. Thus, placing key page elements, such as the site logo and main navigation menu, in the upper and left portion of the page, as the inverted-L layout does, ensures that all users will be exposed to them without having to scroll. Users who do not know or wish to scroll will not miss any critical information about the site."

The link I provided above can give you all the historical and modern details about this strange positioning, and more.

3. What's with Americans and nonsensical design?

Well, the people who invent more things are statistically more likely to invent more things that later seem bizarre or inconvenient, because that's the nature of invention. America (and I'm not American) tends to be a leader when it comes to invention - I'll credit that to its economy and political history, not to general intelligence, if you don't mind - and if you invent tons of things, and most inventions (regardless of country of origin) are later revised drastically (think of the telephone - will future generations ever believe that we used to drag around a tangly cord with us and couldn't leave the kitchen?) you're going to look like an idiot at some point.

In other words, it appears that America is uniquely crappy at inventing things that make sense, but in truth, I think it just appears that way because they invent so much that they're bound to be called on it later.

Notably, Americans are also more pressured into mainstream culture - look at how Microsoft, the clumsy Lego tower of operating systems, is more popular than Apple, which is a functional and concise little OS. In Europe, where form-meets-function design is more highly valued (Americans, I think, are not used to critiquing and analyzing design, as artistic and aesthetic senses are killed off slowly from the gene pool) I think they are more prone to thinking carefully about common stereotypes of design.

Anyway, I hope this helped with your three questions. I'll leave you some better-designed regular sites you may like:

Links at the right: http://www.audi.com/audi/com/en1.html

Eliminating scrolling, links at the top: http://www.artisanconcretesystems.com/

And my personal favourite to explore for innovative new design:

http://k10k.net/

Best of luck and happy reinventing!

Answer 2

Yeah, they should have put it all right in the center. The links bar, the toolbar, the vertical scroll, the horizontal scroll, and the clock should be right there, in the middle.

Answer 3

You are going to need a few tools. The first thing you will need is a wood carvind chizzle, then a hammer, then your
The first thing you will need to do is take your chizzle and your hammer and pop apart the computer
next you will need to take your hammer and chizzle and pop off your pci port. After that is done the next thing you need to do is take your usb port and your hammer and pound it in.After that is done you need to take your hammer and check to see if your mother board isnt fake so tap it 4 times just to make sure than After that is done you need to take your hammer and tap the hard drive check to see if your hard isnt fake
so tap it 4 times just to make sure.
After that is done, you need to check your cd drive a good hard tap should do the trick. After you prove that is in working order check your video cards and processors. A hard stern tap should do the trick. When you are done with that you When you are done with that you can put the computer back together again and take your hammer and test your screen and keys by taping them in a stern fashion then restart your pc

Answer 4

Thats because were mostly right handed, and we use the scroll bar more therefore it makes more accessable!

Answer 5

I dont get the question clearly... will you be able to specify a such site ? In Saudi arabia its possible since they read from Left to right. -Dr.Doom

Answer 6

Mostly people keep mouse on right hand and thats why the scrollbar is on right side. - i hope this makes sense to you now.

For links: its not necessary to keep on left. when you make your site, keep links on right. no one will ask you "WHY"?

Be cool, boy.

Answer 7

bill gates is probably right handed

Answer 8

I HAVE A BETTER QUESTION ? WHY R U UPSIDE DOWN ? OR IS IT MY SCREEN?

Answer 9

idk but i ♥ ur avatar. its hot! lol im a girl by the way! i just pressed male by accident when i was making my avatar.