Simple Website Navigation

Focus your navigation on the people who matter - your customers

How many times have you left a website in frustration because you can't find what you're looking for?

It's quite staggering to see how many navigation botch jobs exist in cyberspace. And often this is because the designer forgot about priority number one - the website user.

When it comes to creating effective navigation your website visitors must take priority - after all, they are the reason the website exists.

Give Them What Want

Use the following hints to create simple and effective website navigation:

1. Analyze what your website visitors want
   What are your customers looking for?
   Make a list of these items and then rank them in order of most popular to least popular.
   E.g. product information, services information, to place an online order, to contact us, to find out about our company, to view product photographs and specifications etc.
   
2. Create the primary navigation
   This is the navigation that is available on every page. Choose the top 8 items in your list - remember to include home and contact us.
   
3. Use navigation labels that are clear and jargon-free
   Websites have conventions - use them as your customers will expect it. Use home for the home page, search for the search page and so on.
   If you need some ideas - view your competitor sites. Don't try and be trendy by inventing your own navigation labels -it will most certainly backfire
   
4. Place your navigation in a prominent position
   Don't hide the navigation above an animated banner as this causes "banner blindness". People are drawn to the image and downwards - they will miss your navigation entirely.
   
5. Give your navigation some space
   Don't bury your navigation amidst heaps of text and imagery. As one of the most important components of your website, your navigation needs room to breathe. It will help people see it.

By following the latter, your website will be a pleasure to browse. This can only lead to a more successful customer viewing experience, and a more profitable one for you.

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