Navigation
What is navigation?
Website navigation plays a very important role in web design. Navigation is how your website users move their way around your site. It has an impact on usability, credibility, and even the content of your website. In order to create an enjoyable and controllable user experience, your navigation should follow the tips that will be explained on this page. As you will read in the following paragraph, there are many different types of navigation. How you choose to design the navigation of your website is up to you.
Types of Navigation
Hierarchical Navigation: the website navigation is structured from general to specific, which provides clear, easy-to-understand paths to different pages on the site
Global Navigation: the navigation displays the top pages of the website and can be seen from every page on the site
Local Navigation: the links to other pages of the website are included with the text of the current page.
Breadcrumb Navigation: there is a provided trail of links that display what pages a user has gone to. This makes it easier for a user to trace their steps as they progress through the site.
TIPS/GUIDES
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- Relate topics in a stack that makes sense - Put most-visited at top of hierarchy |
- Think about what customers would say - Object based: nouns, like a table of contents - Action based: what are you there to do - Audience based: like colleges with student, parent, applicant, etc. |
- Don't include every single page in your main navigation - Top-level should be 4-7 - Dropdowns should be one level - Use sub-menus for pages within pages |