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:
 | 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. |
 | 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. |
 | 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. |
 | 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. |
 | 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. |
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