Creating an Easily-Navigable Web Site
Web site navigation is like a set of signposts, helping visitors understand what content is on the site and making it easy for them to find what they're looking for. The larger the site, the more important it is to provide clear navigation. Without proper navigation, a Web site becomes just a useless jumble of content, which will frustrate visitors and make them unlikely to visit again.
You may think it's style or cleverness, but in fact it's functionality. People want navigation that works well and gets them where they want to go. Navigation should never be flashy and draw attention to itself.
Classification is how Web site content is organized into manageable groups and subject areas. Navigation is how the classification is presented on a Web site. For a particular subject area, there may be only one classification term, but it may be presented in a variety of different ways.
People may follow navigation to their desired content, or they may perform a search to find the content. Sometimes, they'll search initially to narrow down the options and then use navigation to focus on the content they wish to explore.
A publication's table of contents and index. One of the key measures of professionalism in publishing is whether a book or directory has a complete and accurate index. Similarly, navigation is a hallmark of a professionally produced Web site.
Navigation is about helping people to find content, so keep the visitor in mind at all times when designing navigation. Studies show the most visitors don't know exactly what type of content they want (for example, a visitor may want to buy a laptop but not know the exact type or features). Navigation should provide organization and context for visitors, so they can see clearly how to narrow their options. When your navigation is complete, ask several visitors to test it to ensure that it's easy and workable.
Some visitors may want to navigate geographically, some may have a particular subject in mind, and some may want to get back to the home page as quickly as possible. It will be helpful to visitors if you provide different navigation options. In addition to the set of essential links that remain at the top of every page (global navigation), you may want to add other links tailored to your site content. For example, if the Web site is enabled for e-commerce, then it will require a prominent e-commerce navigation system.
Let Visitors Know:
- Where they are. Each page should clearly indicate what part of the overall classification it represents. If it's the home page, the pricing page, the ordering page—making that clear will put visitors at ease.
- Where they have been. It helps visitors if you change the color of each hypertext link that they click, so they know where they've been on the site. People are familiar with blue for unclicked and purple for clicked, so it's helpful to use those same colors
- Where they are going. When visitors click on a link, they expect to go to a standard HTML page. They do not expect to be asked for a password or to watch as a video file starts to download, and they may be annoyed by such delays. If a link is going to a page that requires the visitor to do something extra or involves any processes, the text and navigation should make this clear in advance.
If the essential links are placed across the top of the page in one section of the Web site, for example, then keep them across the top of the page in every other section unless you have a very good reason to change them. If your organization has a number of Web sites, make sure the navigation is consistent across them so employees and external visitors are never confused. Use the conventions that have already emerged on the Web and that people are accustomed to: "About Us," "Contact Us," a search box on every page, and so forth. It's fun to be creative and distinctive in Web site design, but when it comes to navigation, clarity and consistency are most important to site visitors.
Try to anticipate what visitors may want and help them avoid dead ends. For example, if you don't sell to a particular country, make sure your navigation includes a clear statement to that effect so that people will see it before they take the time to fill out an order form.
The Web is often compared to a library. When you visit a library, the bookshelves are the navigation system, but librarians are available to give support if you get lost. Make sure your site visitors have the benefit of an efficient support system. For example:
- If the Web site is a large one, have a comprehensive "Help" section.
- If visitors email the organization in search of a specific piece of content, make sure someone gets back to them quickly.
- Provide guidance on how visitors can conduct their searches most efficiently.
- If visitors are asked to go through a process such as filling out a form, try to isolate any mistakes that are made. For example, if they didn't fill in the address, don't send them back to fill in the entire form, but rather isolate the exact mistake that they made.
Regular visitors get used to the way a Web site is laid out. The more regularly they visit, the more comfortable they are with navigation (and the more likely they are to be valuable customers!). So plan your navigation well and stick with it unless there is a compelling reason to change.
Too many Web sites treat navigation as a visual branding exercise, rather than as a signpost system for helping visitors to quickly find the content they need. Navigation should be simple and functional.
Navigation should be the same for each section of the Web site and should be consistent across all the Web sites an organization has. Inconsistency leads to confusion and a sense of disorganization, defeating the purpose of creating the Web sites in the first place.
New techniques make is possible to create sophisticated menus with pull-downs and nested menus. Unless you have a very specific need to use this type of navigation, don't! Inexperienced users will find it confusing, and inefficient to navigate and it is more likely to cause browser compatibility and accessibility headaches later on.
Addison, Doug.
Heartfield, John.
MacDonald, Matthew.
Slocombe, Mike.
eFUSE: www.efuse.com
Mardiros, Carmen. "Good Web Site Navigation: Reaching The Information Instantly": www.mardiros.net/good-navigation.html
Tiller, W. Eugene, and Phillip Green. "How to make your Web site fast and usable": http://zing.ncsl.nist.gov/hfweb/proceedings/tiller-green/index.html