Web Site Navigation and Development
"Thanks for all your help with our website and your
suggestions. We get so many comments on our web site.
Web reservations are going great. Your other marketing
advice is working well too!"
Thanks
-Kathy, Innkeeper
Inn at The Rostay, Bethel, Maine
Laws of Effective Navigation
The first law of effective navigation: It' must
be readily available.
Visitors should not have to hunt for your navigation
or wonder where to find it. If we've done the job
right, it will be right there when they are ready
for it.
The struggle in creating good navigation is to
figure out what type of navigation the visitor is
going to need, when he is going to need it, and
where the most effective placement will be.
Basically, you have to anticipate your visitors
needs and have a solution ready.
Here are four key areas of effective navigation:
1. Global Navigation
Global navigation is a set of links to all the main
areas of your site that is available on every page
of the site in the same place. Global navigation is
critical, because it gives visitors ready access to
the key areas on your site.
If you don't have this type of navigation, visitors
tend to get lost. They lose their ability to easily
move around between the main sections.
When you use global navigation, visitors develop a
sense of familiarity with your site because the site
is consistent. When they need to find something,
they know right where to look for it.
Global navigation is generally across the top of the
page or down the left side, since these two places
are where visitors will look first.
Also, it's crucial that global navigation be in the
first fold of the page. This means it needs to be
visible in the first window the visitor sees before
they scroll down. Since these options represent the
most crucial sections of your site, it's imperative
that visitors see them immediately. We would never
put your main navigation below the fold.
2. Spotlighted Navigation
On many sites, there are a few navigation options
that get the spotlight in the center of the main
page. The concept is great--hook visitors with the
key areas right up front.
However, many people completely miss the boat
because they focus on the wrong links. Frequently,
they link to the company history or the mission
statement.
You have to concentrate on what's important to your
reader/potential customer and what they want to see.
What are the most important places visitors are
likely to go on your site? Which pages are really
crucial? Put those things front and center.
As with global navigation, all spotlighted links
should also be above the fold. This point might seem
obvious, but I've seen quite a few sites recently
that almost hide the important links. They are
buried too far down in the site.
One site in particular placed the two most important
links at the bottom of the page, completely out of
site. Big mistake: visitors just won't see them.
Although navigation usually shouldn't be the primary
focus of your page (that honor belongs to content),
it should be given a prime position.
3. Contextual Navigation
Contextual navigation refers to links that give more
info about something specific the visitor is trying
to do.
On every page of your site, you'll have to
anticipate the questions a visitor is going to have.
Figure out what kind of additional information they
might need. Then provide links to that information
at the precise place that they will have the
question.
One good rule is that any time you refer to
information on another page of your site or on a
third party's site, link directly to that info.
Don't make them hunt and peck trying to find it for
themselves. Make it readily available.
4. Bottom-of-the-Page Navigation
Whenever the visitor gets to the end of a page, they
are left hanging. They have finished whatever it is
they were working on, and now they need somewhere
else to go.
This is a critical moment, because it is terribly
easy for a visitor to leave if we don't give them
somewhere to go. It is our responsibility to point
them in the right direction.
We never want to leave visitors without suggestions
at the bottom of a page. It is our job to guide them
in the right direction.
We always make sure there is at least one link at
the bottom of a page. We like to ask...
Where are your visitors going to need a link and how
can we make that link really obvious to them?