Navigation

Navigation is at the heart of the web experience - web sites are about delivering information quickly and easily and they achieve this (or not as the case may be) primarily through the ability to use hyperlinks so that information can be presented in bite sized chunks as it is wanted.

• Give a lot of thought to the roadmap of your site and how its different elements are linked.
  • How is this navigational information conveyed to the user?
• Could someone, after visiting your site, draw a simple diagram showing how the different elements are connected and how you get from one place to another?
• If someone comes to your site looking for a specific piece of information, how easy is it to locate it?
• How does a visitor figure out all of the things they can see or do at your site?
• How does a visitor figure out how to navigate your particular site?
• How can the visitor tell if they have seen everything?
• How can a visitor tell what they have and have not seen?
• Make it easy for a visitor to determine what is new and when things were changed.
• A site that is difficult to navigate will also be difficult to maintain.
• Complexity will limit the size of your site.
• Complexity will make it difficult to test your site.

Getting down to business

What are your visitors likely to be wanting? 

• What products are available and how much do they cost?

• What are the benefits of your products and services?

• What are the features?

• How to contact your company?

• Where to buy your products?

• What new products or services do you have?

• How can I get the product I bought from your company to work properly?

• I want to see financial reports and other info.

• Do you have any employment opportunities?

So here are our top ten tips for web design:

Do's and Don'ts

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