

Tabs, Used Right - bootload
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/tabs.html

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apgwoz
I'm a bit skeptical of this. If you need horizontal space, how do you
structure your navigation? A horizontal list of elements such as the ones
news.yc use's could be considered tabs, no? How else _could_ that navigation
even be structured? I'm stumped.

New rule, if you're going to tell people they can't use something, or aren't
using it correctly, at least offer thoughts as to the correct way.

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webwright
I'm not entirely convinced about the "view" thing... Amazon might be big
enough to "create their own weather"... Add in LinkedIn and the pile of other
sites that use tabs as primary nav, I don't see this as a major sin...

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edw519
"Tabs should be reserved for letting users change the view while staying in
the same place."

The word "view" says it all. I don't know how many times I've violated #1. No
more.

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brlewis
#1 is a design problem.

Getting the right navigation element and having it look good is sometimes
tricky. For the upcoming new look of ourdoings.com, I hired a rock-star
designer and asked, among other things, if she could figure out how to replace
the incorrectly-used tabs in my current design.

She was able to deliver on everything else I asked for, but she couldn't find
an alternative that looked as good as tabs. The new design will still have
them.

