If you’ve ever been on a website and had a frustrating time trying to find what you were looking for, getting lost on a site and ending up totally confused then you’ll really appreciate what I’m talking about in this article.
Make your navigation simple to follow
Poor navigation and websites that have been put together without a plan are two of the most common mistakes I constantly see many web designers make.
What I’ve listed below are 5 golden rules for setting up a website’s navigation, improving the visitors experience and overcoming these mistakes.
Golden Rule # 1
Always model the website’s navigation with the individual visitor in mind.
The rationale behind this, is that they are the ones who are going to be working their way around your website. You really need to carefully think about what is in the mind of the visitor when they land on your site.
One of the initial steps in web design is to develop profiles of your websites visitors and then with these profiles in hand you are able to determine what is most important to your end users.
Golden Rule # 2
The next thing you will need to consider is the many ways that individuals may identify your content and also the different actions and applications that could be on your site.
It’s really necessary to have an understanding of just how users will use or move around your web site. By creating user profiles you can determine what actions they may want to take and design your navigation accordingly.
When we optimize a website as per its design, I will always take into consideration that there will be many types of end users, with differing levels of web browsing abilities and interests so I set up the navigation around that making it simple and easy to follow for everybody.
Golden Rule # 3
Provide a number of ways for visitors to find what they are looking for and make it easy for them to access.
Keep in mind some site visitors understand exactly what they are searching for, while others could simply be surfing and prefer to browse through your site.
You also need to think about an setting up site navigation that offers a main menu and hyperlinks to the site’s main categories as well as showing them where they need to go next or how to get back to where they started from.
On top of that you could also set up a site search function and a category index.
Golden Rule # 4
Create a consistent navigation system throughout your site to avoid confusion for the visitor.
Once you have set up a global navigational system make sure all additional navigation methods are consistent and unchanging throughout the whole website. This will help the visitor to go back to locations in the site they have already gone to or to help them delve further into what they are looking for.
Golden Rule # 5
Use navigation and category menu descriptions that are consistent and easy to understand.
Even a website with best framework can be undermined by poorly thought out navigation labels and descriptions. Always use words that your site’s visitors will easily understand and comprehend.
If you use graphics in your navigation, be sure to incorporate content hyperlink navigation as well.
When you follow my 5 golden rules to effective website navigation your visitors will have a much more pleasant experience, stay on the site for longer and possibly even find what they are looking for.
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