Navigation and Interface Design

Websites get big quickly. As yours grows, you will find that your visitors have more and more difficulty finding their ways around it. The way that you can handle this is through thinking hard about the structure of your site, how people will navigation, and, in general, what the interface is like.

Here are a few tips:

bullet Use a consistent look-and-feel throughout your site. This helps people know that they are still in your site and, therefore, helps them know what to expect and how to find other things.
bullet Part of this consistency means having common navigation elements in specific places on your site. For example, most pages on this site include a banner (to help people locate themselves) and navigation buttons (to help them move around) at the top. Often it can be helpful to have a common element, such as a logo, be "clickable," so that people can use it to get back to the home page if they get lost.
bullet  Let people know where they are in your site. For example, you could have a page banner with the page name or a horizontal bar that shows the path the visitor took to get to the current. people have a tendency to "get lost in hyperspace." Some road signs can help them find their way again.
bullet  If possible, add things such as a table of contents for the site, a graphical "map" of the site, and a search function. These will help people find their way around, too.
bullet  Often the best way to give people a good experience on the Web is to ask them what they want out of the site before you develop it. Don't ask them to design it. Instead, ask them what information they think is most important, find out what they look for on a site, and then design it yourself to meet those needs.
 

© 2001-2007 Albert L. Ingram, Ph.D.