Consistent Navigation
Navigation is a very important element of web site design usability. Most people
come to a web sites looking for specific information or a specific topic. One
mistake that many web site designers make is to assume that a visitor to the web
site will look at the entire page before they figure out where they want to go
next. Another misconception is that the visitor to the web site will enter the
site at the home page and navigate through the site is some orderly fashion. Actually,
the visitor to your web site may enter it from almost any page. In addition, they
generally navigate the site, not by reading the entire page, but instead by scanning
the page and clicking on the first link that seems like it may lead to the information
they are interested in.
Here are few key points to keep in mind:
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Create a consistent site wide navigation area that will appear
on every page of the web site. This area should give the visitor a clear idea
of where they are and how the site is organized. |
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For larger sites, create sub-section navigation area on each
page or topic within the area of the web site has its own links. This can
be either a sub-section of a traditional navigation bar or sub-menus if the site
uses drop-down menus. |
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Provide search box if your site has large amounts of content.
Some users prefer to use a search box to help them focus in on exactly the content
they are looking for. For a search box to be effective, your web site needs to
be intelligently indexed by keyword. |
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If you have many off site references for a given topic, it
is usually helpful to organize these into their own separate side bar. |
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Keep the organization of the web site "Wide" rather than "Deep".
A web site organized many levels of navigations is a deep site. A web site that
has many topics but fewer levels is called a wide site. The figures below show
an example of a wide site and a deep site. Studies show that having many levels
of navigation creates a difficult to navigate and often frustrating site. In
a wide site, everything on the web site is only one or two clicks away. |
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| "Deep Site" |
"Wide Site"
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