The Indextrialist

The navigation menu of a website is one of the most important elements on a website. Without a good navigation menu a website user will become lost and not find the information they need to use your website. Read over my dos for website navigation and then look at your website to see if you are meeting the criteria for good navigation.

Do…Be consistent with the navigation menu for your website.

Keep your websites navigation menu consistent on every page. When a user clicks on a link, the link must not disappear, move or not be clickable anymore. The navigation menu needs to stay in the same place that it was before the user clicked. Well laid out navigation that sticks with the web standards becomes predictable and makes people feel comfortable navigating through the rest of a site.

Do…Create a navigation menu that allows users to access what they are looking for right away.

The customer has come to your website to buy a product, obtain information or purchase your services. Give them access to that information throughout the website by placing links to those pages in the navigation menu. The peripheral information such as job opportunities, privacy policy, and the site map can be left for the bottom navigation of the site.

Do… Use drop down menus when there are many pages that users want to access quickly

Drop down menus can become cumbersome if they are done incorrectly. When they are done correctly (www.purseroil.com) they can become a very effective way for users to get to the information they need with just one or two clicks.

Do…Use words in your navigation menu that are relevant to the topic you are discussing.

The use of words like “stuff” or “our things” to use as your products link is very vague. If you are offering different products then make the link say “products.” Trying to get away with using what I consider clever words just doesn’t work for the end user.

There are many more rules that I will be posting here soon. Check back soon for the list of navigation menu don’ts.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 10th, 2007 @ 7:59 pm on the category Web Design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.