Menu Bars Side or Top for products

[Steven1976a]

Hi All
What are your views on where products should appear on a web page and also info pages such as terms, contact us etc....

We have always used in the past our products down a left menu on every page and the info along the top.
One of our partners in our company also have a silver mail order company and they have hired a company in the UK to do usability tests on their new site and the outcome was that the products should be along the top menu bar.

Any thoughts on this?

[davebarnes]

Some studies have shown...

http://psychology.wichita.edu/surl/usabilitynews/3W/web_object.htm

[topboy]

A very important point to consider while designing a website is proper navigation. You must ensure that potential clients or customers are able to find the information they are looking for without too many clicks. As a quick rule of thumb, visitors to your site should be able to visit all your pages by using, at most, 3 clicks. This is also important when considering search engine optimization (SEO) because search engines will only spider (or index) pages that are 3 clicks deep into your site. Not only does proper navigation allow users to find information they are looking for, but it also allows search engines to spider (or index) the information they are looking for. This is essential if you want high quality search engine traffic directed to your website.
Different types of websites employ different navigation styles, so it is probably best to visit websites similar to your own to see which navigation structure they have chosen. The most common locations for your navigation menu are either on the left side of the page or at the top of the page.

You can read more about WebSite Navigation at http://www.tophatsolutions.ie/web_design/website_design_elements_improve_web_navigation.htm l

[Webnauts]

You can read more about WebSite Navigation at http://www.tophatsolutions.ie/web_design/website_design_elements_improve_web_navigation.htm l
How can someone trust the info of a site like that, since their pages does not even have a proper/well-formed semantical structure?

Sorry.

[topboy]

well im sorry to burst your bubble webnauts

[Webnauts]

well im sorry to burst your bubble webnauts
No problem topboy. :)