We can see the importance of site navigation:
Ditch the haughty ideas and focus on the client.
Big thoughts are great when executed with usability in mind, but when they become an obstruction to clients, it is time to go back to fundamentals. Why? Because unhappy client do not change. You won't do any business, and you won't attain your other conversion metrics if you make people want to run away.
Navigation is the base of Usability
The first and important part of good usability is navigation. Nearly all other usability topics are built on, or in some way linked to navigation. This article will focus on some key tips you can use to develop your site navigation.
Navigation 101: Three click or Bust
When somebody visits your site for the first time, it's regularly their first point of contact with your company, so the link with them is quite brittle. On average, people are willing to give you three clicks to find what they are searching for, and if they can't reach their target end within those 3 little clicks, you have missing them. It's particularly significant to organize your navigation so that any page of your site can be attain within 3 clicks of any other page, because users don't forever enter at the homepage, particularly when they come from a search engine.
This point is actually what sparked this post. The ad agency mention above wasted two of these important clicks before a user was ever at the index page. Take a look at your site: When you have a new user, can they get to their target end in 3 clicks or less? If not, you require repairing your navigation. Users are likely to get lost without clear navigational path, so make it easy for them. Take time at the beginning of site development to make a good site map, and plan out navigational paths.
Redundancy is a good thing.
Give multiple paths to the same end. Take x product and make sure that client can get there through the main navigation, the related links in the text of the site, and through any other paths that make sense, for example through site search results. The key is to imagine like a user.
Get outside comment.
When developing a site, particularly navigation, it often is essential to get some people to visit your site who are completely unknown with your site and products, and get their feedback. You might be surprised. Often outside comment can you step back and see some fault you weren't aware of.
Make sure it is easy to read.
Keep in mind that eye-tracking reading have shown the users eye tend to descend toward the top and left sides of the screen, starting with the top left corner, so those are prime place for navigation. Users should never have to scroll to get navigation links.
posted by Alenjoe
@ 12:37 PM
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