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Building
a better web site Navigation Concepts |
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Why is Navigation Critical? If you get customers to your site, then you want to keep them there and you want them to return. Great graphics, wonderful advertising, and remarkable animation are not in themselves things that would keep a customer visiting your site. You would of course want good advertising of your products and graphics of those gift baskets so that they are eye-appealing enough to make customers want to buy. However, if someone cannot navigate your site successfully and it causes confusion and frustration, then you will not have repeat visitors. This is especially important when you have an offering that is competitive in nature. Navigation Action Plan Each personality that visits your site is different. Some people like to browse while others just want to quickly reach the information they came to your site for. It is important to provide Navigation that suits a variety of browsing behaviors. Graphic interfaces can be part of navigation, but it is just that "a part" of the navigation process. A graphic interface should not be the exclusive means for navigation. Some people are visual and some are not. Be certain to provide navigational means that fit a variety of browsing behaviors. Navigation Hierarchy If a user has to travel too many paths to get to the desired information, it will frustrate the user to the point that he or she will not want to use your site. The suggested number of clicks to access linked files is that of three. This is what is known as the "three-click-rule." Familiar Navigation Conventions Labels for things that people have become familiar with, such as Help, FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions), and the Contact Us option should use naming that people have come to associate with these things. The names should not deviate from what the users have come to expect. Do not try to label these familiar things with unique names. For example, users have come to expect a Web site to furnish the ability to search within that site. They are now accustomed to that feature being labeled as "Search." It would be unwise to go with a different name than what the Web user has come to expect. Unless necessary, keep the default colors for links. Users are accustomed to them. Do not rely on the Back button that comes with the browser. You should provide navigation links such as Back and Home on every page. A Site map is a diagram of your site with the locations and titles of pages. Do not count on the user to scroll down or to the right. Use text and images together to guide the eye in a natural way. Users are comfortable reading from left to right.
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Welcome
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