Understanding
Navigation
Navigation
is one of the most critical aspects of Web site design - arguably the
most important. No matter how good a site looks, and no matter how much
useful information it offers, without sensible navigation scheme, it will
only manage to confuse visitors and chase them away. A simple, logical,
understandable navigation scheme can increase your number of page impressions,
boost return visits, and improve your "conversion rate" (the number of
visitors who are "converted" into customers). It's a critical aspect of
site design that has a direct effect on the bottom line.
Good navigation is mostly a matter of common sense and although it varies
somewhat for different types of sites, there are certain basic principles
that apply to almost all sites, or at least almost all business sites.
Well-designed Web sites tend to have similar navigational layouts, for
the same reasons that most books have a table of contents and an index.
However, there are differing opinions about some navigational issues,
and of course every site is different, so if something off the beaten
path works for you, go for it. Just be sure that your navigation scheme
is well thought-out and logical.
The core of any good navigational scheme is:
1. Tell people exactly what is available on your site
2. Help them get to the parts they want quickly
3 Make it easy to request additional information
Top
Down or Hierarchical Design
Many
sites use a hierarchical or pyramid type arrangement. Visitors in such
sites go from layer to layer in a top down or general to specific direction.
A hierarchy may be thought of as a triangle, with the home page at the
top corner, and the lowest level of detail as the bottom edge of the triangle.
Hierarchies only make sense when they are reasonably close to an equilateral
(equal-sided) triangle. If your home page links to twenty pages, you should
add another level. If your home page links to only two pages, each of
which links to only two pages, etc., then you have too many levels. Smaller
sites usually need only two levels, while medium-sized sites may have
a secondary level of "hub" pages between the home page and the lower level
containing the actual content. Of course, some sections of your site may
have more levels than others.
One pertinent question here is - How long should each page be? This is
partly a matter of opinion, and varies greatly from one site to another.
Some people believe that lengthy content, which if placed on a single
page would require readers to scroll down several screens to see it all,
should be broken up into several pages. Others argue that it's less hassle
to scroll down a lengthy page than it is to click through to another page
and wait for it to load. Sites designed for geeks (programming and network
stuff) almost always seem to go for the long-page model, while more "consumer-oriented"
sites more often choose the lots-of-short-pages design. Some online magazines,
or "content-based" sites, do this for financial reasons. They sell ads
based on the number of page impressions delivered, so breaking an article
up into five pages means that they will score five page impressions instead
of one (assuming that the article holds the reader's interest). It may
also improve search engine findability, and make articles easier to maintain.
The author prefers to avoid breaking content up into too many pages. There's
nothing wrong with a page that scrolls down for miles, as long as it's
designed properly.
A long page should have a table of contents at the top, with hyperlinks
to each section of the page. This is done by inserting intra-document
hyperlink tags at appropriate points in the page. For example, please
see the pages in BUYER section of Banijya.
Navigation
Bar
Navigation
bar is an essential element of a well-laid-out site. A navbar not only
makes navigation easier, but is an integral part of a site's branding.
When a user sees the navbar, they know what site they're on, and they
know that they can get back to where they started any time, so they worry
less about getting lost. Your navbar should include all the main sections
of your site, and it should be the same on every page of the site (although
each section of a larger site may have its own sectional navbar in addition
to the main navbar). Every page should have a navbar as an integral part
of the layout of the page, which should be consistent throughout the site.
Most designers put a navbar at both top and bottom of the page, although
they needn't be exactly the same. A "sidebar" is also a good place for
a navbar.
A navbar may be made up of individual graphics, it may be an image map,
or it may be simple text. Javascript may be used to make the buttons change
appearance when the mouse is over them, or to create even more elaborate
effects, such as a bit of explanatory text that appears for each item.
Make sure that your script includes a bit of code at the beginning to
hide the script code from older browsers that don't support Javascript.
The Golden Rule of Web design applies to navbars, too: Keep it simple
! Never use clever Javascript animations just because you can, but only
if they actually add functionality to the user interface.
Frame
or No-Frame ?
Many
sites use frames as part of their navigational strategy. If you divide
each page into two or three frames, you can have your company logo and/or
your navbar constantly in sight. The frame with the content scrolls, but
the frame with the navbar does not, so the navbar is always right there
where the user can find it.
Frames, however, have several drawbacks. All hyperlinks on a framed site
must use the TARGET attribute to ensure that a page comes up in the correct
frame. Nothing looks more stupid than a page full of content coming up
in a narrow frame that was intended for the navbar. Getting the TARGET
attributes right can be quite complex, and every single link must be tested
to make sure that the frame scheme works out right.
If someone (or a search engine) links to a page that is not a frameset,
it will not come up the way you intended, and you'll look like an amateur.
To mitigate this problem, include a "robots.txt" file in your home directory.
This file contains a list of directories that should not be indexed by
visiting spiders. All pages other than framesets should be in separate
directories, and those directories included in your "robots.txt" file.
If you have links to other sites, these links must include a TARGET= "_parent"
attribute so that the other site will not come up inside one of your frames
("_blank" or "_new_window" will also work). Never, ever have someone else's
site come up inside one of your frames. This quite rightly makes site
owners apoplectic, not only because it's unethical (and possibly even
illegal - the jury's still out), but because it violates every principle
of good design. A page designed to be viewed as a full screen will not
look good inside a frame. It will scroll, you will look like an amateur,
they will complain, and you will go to Hell.
Incidentally, the author objects to frames not for any of the reasons
mentioned above, but simply because they tend to make a page look cramped
and cluttered. There's also the question of undesired scrolling, which
can really make a page look terrible. Only neophytes (or self-parodists)
use more than 3 frames on a page, and those who choose to use them should
make sure that they fully understand how they work, and handle them as
one would a loaded firearm.
Is there a middle way where you can use the helpful navigation feature
of frames without subscribing to its idiosyncrasies ? Well, look at the
design of this page. The navbar at left looks like frame, but actually
there is no frame.
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