Module 2 - Analyzing and Designing a Web Site
Navigation Systems
The navigation system is a very important aspect of your web site design. The navigation system is the steering wheel for the user – it is how they get where they want to go in your site. Navigation also serves as a way to outline the information that is included in your site.
One common error that new web designers make when designing a navigation system is to simply make a long list of links or buttons that link to each individual page of your site. Why is this a mistake? Well, on a very small site, this type of “list everything” navigation might be effective, but on larger sites the list of buttons gets too long and overwhelming for users. A list of links also does little to organize the content for the user. If you just list it all, it also makes it hard for the user to know what content goes together.
There are several types of navigation that you can crate to move the user through the content:
- Linear Navigation
- Non-linear Navigation (also known as Hierarchical Navigation)
- A mix of Linear and Non-linear Navigation
Linear navigation provides what the name implies – a line through the content. On a site with linear navigation, instead of the option to choose one of several different links, the user will just have a link that takes them to the next page, or back to the previous one. This moves the user through the content in a very specific order. This kind of navigation is good for things that need to be presented in a specific order, like the steps in a tutorial, or the presentation of a story.
Non-linear navigation is the type of navigation we are most familiar with. On a site with non-linear navigation, the user has more control because several links to different sections are presented. The user clicks on the link to the area they want to visit. One important note – just because you have non-linear navigation, that does not mean that the information is not organized. The best non-linear navigation arranges the content into subject areas, like on Amazon.com when they arrange their tabs into Books, Music, etc. Once you get to the Books section, there is more navigation to move you through that section.
You can also mix these navigation systems together. A good example of this would be a web site that has lots of computer tutorials. On the first page you could have non-linear navigation that lists all the different tutorials that are offered, and then you could have linear navigation once you reach the tutorial to take you through it step by step.
The Web Site Structure Map and the Web Site File Structure are very helpful in helping you to design the navigation system. Use them to figure out your categories and then where the links to different pages will be.