Good Website Navigation Tips

>> Titles of navigation links should be short, descriptive and intuitive. Users should easily understand what every link leads to.
>> The primary navigation should not have more than 6-7 links. Keep only the most important links in the primary navigation and leave the rest for the secondary navigation.
>> Make the primary navigation stand out by using graphics or different links style.
>> If using graphics or javascript links, a text alternative should be available. Some people might have the graphics turned off or javascript disabled when browsing the Internet. In such cases an alternate option should be available. To achieve this, a text menu and the bottom of the page could be included.
>> On every page there should be a reasonable number of links. Pages with 20-30 links are harder to use than pages with 10 links. Visitors don't have the time to click on all of them to see if they are interested in the information secluded behind them. The best approach is group similar links in categories and let people discover them click upon click.
>> Users should be able to tell at any time their whereabouts are in a web site. A crumbs type of menu such as the one on this page lets them know that they are in a subsection of the Accessible web design section.
>> Colour links don't necessarily have to be standard but they should be able to tell if a link has been clicked before or not.

By Geethalakshmi, On - 2011-12-01

PreviousNext