Web Sites are known for many things…look and feel, content delivery, and not to forget, their navigation system. In today’s internet age, navigation system of a web site is like the limbs of the web site. Can you imagine a person without any limbs? Similarly, a web site without a navigation system or a poor navigation system is handicapped to a large extent.
We might have been able to establish that navigation systems are important, but exactly how important, is outlined below:
1. As the name suggests, navigation systems act as a navigator for users to move around the web site. A good navigation system can help promote the right pages to the users. It is extremely difficult to guess where relevant content might be located without the help of a navigation system.
2. Navigation systems need to be intuitive. A good designer will understand that you need to outguess the action of the users and that will help users get the full benefit of visiting the website. Many web sites are for education purposes... it becomes imperative that the navigation system makes sure that the users get what they are looking for without getting lost.
3. Navigation can also form a very important part of the web site design. In fact, most web sites designs revolve around the navigation system itself. New technologies such as Flash and AJAX now add navigation systems which are very interactive and provide some very interesting design concepts. Some of the world’s best web sites are the ones which are very simple in design and use the navigation system to create a concept. Making a navigation system which is not consistent can result in poor usage of the web site as well as contribute to poor web site designing.
4. A good navigation system also helps in placing web sites prominently on search engines. This is important since online marketing is one of the key ways to attract users (and subsequently business) to your web site. Good programming techniques can ensure that search engines look within the navigation structure as well to index pages.
If you are still not convinced that a navigation system plays a key role in the health of a web site, then a quick look at usability guides published by various web site design companies and web design authorities highlight navigation within the first three points of consideration which evaluating a web site for usability. Some of the recommendations for navigation systems are:
1. Text based links are preferred for navigation structure rather than graphical links. Not only do they display well, they are easy for the search engines to look up.
2. A Multi-tier navigation structure is recommended for complex web site. This provides excellent level of ease of use. It also allows the users to jump from one link to another without going through various unrelated pages.
3. Online studies have shown that one of the most effective navigation structures are the ones which are left hand oriented or top down.
4. Navigation structure should remain uniform through out the website. It should not change with the change of sections. Changes in navigation system can result in dis-orienting a user within a web site.
5. There should not be too many navigations systems within a web site. A major navigation system and a minor navigation system is the maximum which should exist in a web site.
