Discussions about navigation on a website usually revolve around where to put them and what items should be in them. But without navigation on a website, there is no website, just the one page where a visitor entered your site.
Two Ways to Navigate
There are really only two ways to navigate a website: search and menus. People will usually try one or the other, but they may also try one and then the other. Usually people are either a searcher or a browser. Either way, both search and a menu system should be easy to find and easy to understand.
Easy to Use
Whatever navigation people use, it needs to be extremely easy to use. The less interaction (pull downs, drop downs, extra buttons), the better. Searches should be clearly marked as Search. People expect the button to be on the right side and to say something like “Go” or “Search”. It’s better if you do the hard work of figuring out what they want (instead of having a drop down with different types of searches). It’s often obvious what they want by what they type into the search field. For example, “248-555-5555” is clearly a phone number. Menus should be either on the top or sides (multiple places can be ok). Whatever you choose, be consistent throughout the site and use titles that are clear and easy to read.
Find it Fast
You have about 5-10 seconds to engage a visitor and let them know that you have what they’re looking for. If they don’t find it on the page where they entered your site, they may look around for a search or menu to see if they can find it somewhere else on your site. If they can’t find your search or menu or some other type of navigation, they’re quickly going to leave.
Proper Use of Technology
Be wary of using technologies (such as Flash) that make pretty navigation or menus (animation, for example). If someone doesn’t have access to that particular technology, they don’t have access to your site (and many search engines won’t access it either). Even if some technology has widespread use, make sure you have backup methods of allowing people to access your site. And just because you think having pretty menus is nice, doesn’t mean that everyone who comes to your site likes them (animations can get very annoying after several pages).
No Navigation = No Website
Without a way to navigate throughout your site, people are stuck where ever they landed and they’re not likely to stay there for long. Navigation gives visitors (and search engines) access to the rest of your site, making it easier for them to stay longer (and for you to get your point/sale across).
Thoughts?
(photo by psd @ Flickr CC)
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Technorati tags: design, usability, business, navigation