Navigation Schemes

Help! Get Me Out Of Here!

The #1 complaint of Web users is that they waste precious time not finding the information they seek once having landed on a site that promises it. A principal cause of this frustration is the site's poorly conceived and implemented navigation scheme. In fact, user-unfriendly navigation interfaces result in wasted time even though the information being sought may eventually be found!

9 common navigation scheme design blunders:

1. Unclearly labeled navigation menus
2. Inconsistent navigation schemes throughout the site
3. Browser "back" button disabled
4. No alternate text navigation to complement image maps or JavaScript dropdown menus
5. Site or image maps that take too long to load
6. Links to nowhere
7. "Roach Motel/Hotel California" links—you can enter but you can never leave
8. Any type of navigation scheme which requires endless scrolling
9. Site search engines with enough options to paralyse the user

The Appropriate Structure

Navigating a narrow, deep menu structure can be confusing. It can make reverse navigation and site exploration difficult. If the navigation menu hierarchy is too narrow and too deep too many mouse-clicks are required to access information.

A broad, flat structure allows users to reach their goals more economically and reduces their short-term memory load. However, if the navigation menu hierarchy is too broad and shallow too many choices can lead to the disappointment of too little content.

Internal search engines, site maps, tables of contents, or dropdown menus can be employed as shortcuts to pages within especially content-rich sections of a Web site.

Navigation Design Strategy

A Website's navigation scheme is its circulatory system—it should be as intuitive as possible. Polling test-users about their likes and dislikes regarding navigation schemes on other sites can be useful both during and after the design stage.

Links should be obvious and make logical sense in relation to a site's content and design. Only the number of links essential to site navigation should be available. The absence of redundant clicks needed to get from one page to another makes a navigation interface economical to use.

Visitors should always be in control of their stay on a site. They should always be able to return to the previous page no matter where they are on the site. Links to external sites should open a new browser window. Confusing visitors with a poor navigation scheme greatly increases the odds of losing them—literally and permanently.

Web page elements, including navigation schemes, should be consistent in appearance and placement throughout a site. A Website shouldn't look like a hodgepodge of pages. And Web text should never be underlined for emphasis—this is a hypertext convention that indicates a link.

- Allan Ennist

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