Hook, Line and Thinker

Issue 3

Navigating navigation I

Competition on the web is intense: Users know that if one site seems a little hard to use, another is just a click away. And click they do. A visitor who is even a little annoyed or confused is a visitor who is gone. Navigation is such an critical topic that I can’t cover what every business owner should know in a single newsletter. Ultimately, your ability to reel in business may rest on visitors’ ability to navigate your site easily.

This issue: The basics

It’s very simple. Users want to know:

Where am I?
Where can I go?
How can I get back?

There are many ways to accomplish this. The nature, complexity and objectives of your site will determine what’s best for you. Here are the various types of navigation in use today:

Hyperlinks simply take the reader to another page. But embedded links do little to help the user understand where they are or how the information in the site is organized.
“Bread crumbs” - As you navigate down a branch of the hierarchy, each step of your journey is reflected on the page like a trail of bread crumbs. You see it in information-rich sites, such as Yahoo! It’s clear, but forces the user to backtrack to see what else is on the site; like an radiating subway system, where you have to return to the main station to get on another line.
Nav bars have become nearly universal on the Web. Generally nav bars appear across the top or down the left side of the screen. Some people argue that while nav bars are great for lateral navigation, they aren’t used much since most people tend to drill down on a single topic that’s the focus of their interest.
Popup menus and submenus are a subset of the nav bar and address issues of how to navigate the deeper reaches of the site. There are advantages and disadvantages to both popups and submenus. Popup menus (example: ADR) save screen space, allow users to quickly scan the entire site and click directly between subsections without backtracking. Unfortunately, they don’t work on every system and they hide content, in that links are only visible when the user’s mouse is on the menu. If you have room on the screen, consider Submenus (example: The Business Resource Group, click on “What we do”) – they serve as a constant reminder of other content in the section. But you can usually only see the submenu for one section at a time.
Site Maps are often used for supplementary navigation. Some users find site maps convenient, since they provide one-click access to the entire site.
Image maps were once very popular, but they are usually graphically intensive without adding much useful information. One major exception: They are absolutely the best tool for physical location (find a store in a mall, etc.)
“How do I” menus are sometimes offered as a supplement to the main navigation and are oriented to answering the user’s needs. For example, a banking site might have a list that starts “How do I…” and then a pulldown list with options like “open a new account” “get my current balance” etc. This simple step makes a site seem more personalized and encourages visitors to start viewing themselves in the role of client, but it requires you to learn what your USERS want to do on your site, not what YOU want them to do.
Search may be the most popular and arguably the most effective means of navigation because of specificity.
Personalized navigation is extremely effective on sites like Amazon, where every page includes links to products you’ve viewed, things you might want to see, etc.
Combo – this is what you will probably end up with – some combination of hyperlinks, nav bars, submenus, etc. in order to give your users the most options and flexibility.

Next month: How to decide and how to implement the best navigation for your site.

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