Web Site Navigation: How Much is Necessary? (Part 2)

Commentary by: Mike Osswald, Strategic Director

In the last issue I discussed analyzing your audience's needs in an attempt to categorize your site content. The gist of Part 1 was to point out that you can create relatively well-organized content that will meet the needs of the majority of your visitors by analyzing just a handful of personas, or typical users.

How Much Navigation is Necessary?

Navigation is all about getting from one content area to the next. The primary focus in designing a usable interface is to define which navigational tools to use, and how to best help visitors find what they need.

You need enough navigation to answer the following three major questions: Where am I? Where have I been? Where should I go from here?

In addition, sticking with just one or two navigational tools won't meet the needs of the majority of users. Good navigation design provides several ways of answering these questions.

An analysis of which navigational tools should be used includes:

  • Audience needs: frequency of visits, visiting many vs. few pages
  • Site content: few vs. many pages, well-ordered hierarchy vs. disordered content
  • Business process goals: increased efficiency by offering decision-making tools and related content
  • Marketing goals: desire to “push” certain pages (products, messages) to the user

When you have good navigation design, the delivery of information (i.e. content) takes precedence to navigating the site, and that is specifically where the positive user experience is created. Here are some pointers:

By far, the best way to help users flow easily through your site is to use clear signpost links in the body of the page to direct traffic. And a good home page begins this process from the very start. Pay attention to what you tell visitors to do in the body of the page, and be sure to tell them something, even if it's “use the links at left to navigate our site”.

The second function of your navigational system is to let the user know at a glance where he or she is in the hierarchy of the site with good page headings. This knowledge is critical in the virtual world because you can be “transported” instantly to a distant section, and you need to orient yourself, just like the “you are here” dot on a map. Users generally expect the navigation to impart this information, but also rely on good page headings. Don't design your pages with the assumption that your visitors know where they are.

The “back” button is not bad. Studies show that users have come to rely on it. Unfortunately, Web sites designed entirely in Flash for example, may not work with the browser back button. You should consider ways to give users the ability to step back and take a different route. In addition, don't underestimate the power of a “home” button. A lot of people who get lost like to start over at the beginning.

If at all possible, you should not have to move your mouse to know what is a link. Links need to look like links. They don't need to be underlined, they just need to stand out. Mousable navigational tools should be reserved for seldom-used or secondary navigation. Test your designs on typical users and have them show you where they think they can click.

Yes, search tools are good, and a great deal of users rely on them. But it's my opinion that they have come to rely on them because they have wasted too much time in the past trying to decipher bad design. If you use a search engine, it must return real results. If your site is deep, you should return results grouped by categories on your site. If you use meta tags and pdfs, make sure the results don't look like gibberish. If there is only one result, consider taking users directly to that page.

Designing a good navigation system is not that hard if you've designed your content around your users. Make sure your headings are clearly labeled and visible. Remember to address the three major questions, and provide multiple navigational tools for personal preference.

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