“All items appear to carry equal weight, leaving the user scanning the page for something important.”
On the contrary, I think that the logo draws the eye in, and the flanking items give them something to look at immediately after. Admittedly the ads below throw off the balance, but I think that’s more a result of colour and detail against a site that’s predominantly monotone. And let’s face it, ads often work against balance and visual weighting to begin with. Hard to roll with that.
How important do you feel it is for a navigation system (main, sub, tertiary, etc) to utilize a consistent color scheme for unity and distinction from other elements?
That would go a long way toward consistency, and could aid in differentiating the nav quite well if done right. Though these days you’d be hard-pressed to find sites that use nav in multiple spots throughout the page that apply a common treatment, so it’s not exactly a common convention.
Although I suspect it’s probably more true that you’d require secondary and deeper-level nav to visually stand apart from global nav. Having a clear nav hierarchy isn’t a bad thing.
Dave S.
On the contrary, I think that the logo draws the eye in, and the flanking items give them something to look at immediately after. Admittedly the ads below throw off the balance, but I think that’s more a result of colour and detail against a site that’s predominantly monotone. And let’s face it, ads often work against balance and visual weighting to begin with. Hard to roll with that.
That would go a long way toward consistency, and could aid in differentiating the nav quite well if done right. Though these days you’d be hard-pressed to find sites that use nav in multiple spots throughout the page that apply a common treatment, so it’s not exactly a common convention.
Although I suspect it’s probably more true that you’d require secondary and deeper-level nav to visually stand apart from global nav. Having a clear nav hierarchy isn’t a bad thing.