Website Navigation: Heart of Web Design

Navigation is the key to a successful website design and it should comprise of the following elements

including- consistency, ease in finding, keep it simple, keep it minimal and don’t forget the back

button.

The attention span of an average web user is limited to a few seconds and he loses interest

if the desired results are not achieved within those seconds. Therefore, a website designer

should ensure that while working on a web design, good navigation is given utmost

importance.

Website navigation is the key factor that determines the success of a site. When designing

the web navigation elements, the purpose of the site and its target audience have to be

determined. The key of an accessible web design is a clean and comprehensible navigation

that is user-centric.

The important elements of a strong website navigation are-

1) Consistency- While navigation is the key to a successful website design, consistency

is the key to a successful navigation plan. The type, style, position and the colours of the

navigation bars should have some uniformity to improve the user experience. If the

navigation changes on every web page or changes colours, the visitor would get confused

and would prefer to leave the site to find a simpler website that provides the required

information.

2) Easy to find- If you try to overdo with your navigation style and make it way too

complex, the visitors would lose interest in your site because they would be confused about

it. So without testing the patience of your visitors, you must ensure that your website design

has a navigation that is very easy to find and allows the visitors to browse through the site

comfortably.

3) Keep it simple- No matter how much you experiment with your web design, the

navigation should remain simple and conventional. Using unique names for different

sections is not a great idea, because visitors are not used to such names and would not find

those sections worth seeing, even if they contain information that they came looking for on

the site. Therefore, simplicity should be maintained throughout the navigation of a website

design and obvious names and titles should be given to different sections and web pages on

the site.

4) Keep it minimal- When you have too many navigation buttons on the website,

confusion is bound to occur. You give too many options to the visitors through these

buttons and they fail to reach to the actual page where they wanted to reach at the first

place. Moreover, by giving too many options, you also prevent the visitors from taking a

positive action on the site.

5) Don’t forget the Back button- Never leave the visitors on their own when they are on

your website. Always tell them where they are and have a Back button so that they can

return to the point where they started from.

When done properly, website navigation can strongly benefit the website and the business

that it represents. What makes navigation important for the success of a website is

discussed below:

i. Improved accessibility

ii. Browser compatibility

iii. Great user experience

iv. Better conversion

v. Improved financial results

For the original version on Hotfrog visit: - http://www.hotfrog.com.au/Companies/Web-

Deisgn-Sigma-InfoTech/Website-Navigation-Heart-of-Web-Design-335783

Sigma InfoTech Level 8, 33 York Street, Sydney NSW, Australia - 2000 Tel: 1300782023

Fax: 1300 79 44 02 E-mail: sales@sigmainfotech.com.au

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