Web Development- Why Good Website Navigation Is Important ?

Web surfers are basically an impatient bunch and if a website is hard to figure out because the links are not obvious, they will click away never to return. Website navigation is one of the most crucial elements in determining the effectiveness of a website. This article discuses the basic principle of designing website navigation. To be effective website navigation must first and foremost make sense to the average person. While there is always room for creativity, well-designed websites tend to have similar navigation layouts.

As a web designer you must always keep in mind the basic purpose of the website and the intended audience when designing navigational elements. Most websites exist to either inform the visitor about a product or service or to actually sell the product or service. Therefore there are some basic guidelines to follow:

Make sure all navigational elements are clearly links by using standard conventions for links such as buttons, menus, underlining the text or changing color on mouse. Resist the temptation to use clever or ambiguous names for links.

When using non-conventional links, explicitly tell the visitor that this is a link. For example, suppose you design a web page where you want to use a map showing several different cities and want to let the user click on the city name to pull up information about that city. Just make sure you tell the user to click on the city name to get more information about that city.

Remember the “Three Click Rule” that most professional web designers use. Studies have shown that most users will not click more than three links to get to the information they want. So every page on your website should be reachable within three clicks.

Navigation Element Locations

Top Menus – a top of the page menu bar is usually located directly below the page header graphic that contains the site logo.
Left Side Navigation – left side navigation is typically implemented as either a column or text area on the left top portion of the webpage.
Right Side Navigation – right side navigation is not used that often, but when used, it is implemented as a column or text area on the top right side of the webpage.
Bottom Menus – bottom menus can be either a menu bar or footer.

Important Navigation Elements 

Internal Page Links – Every page on the website should be within two or three clicks from the home page.
Login Boxes – login boxes should be prominently displayed. Common locations are top left, top right or inside the page header.
Shopping Carts – if you use a shopping cart to sell your products, you should prominently display a view cart button on each page.
Order Buttons – if you use individual order buttons they should be large and visible.
Breadcrumbs – Breadcrumbs are usually located at the top left of the page just under the header. Each word is a link back to the previous page. They are in the form

       Home-> Articles-> Marketing

External Links – external links can be used anywhere but are most frequently used inside the text areas on a website.
Advertisements – advertisements are usually either a graphic or text with an associated hyperlink.
Downloadable Items – if you offer downloadable items such as audio, video or pdf files, make sure that you tell the user how big the file is and whether they need an application to use the file.
Site Map – A site map is a good way to layout your entire site for your visitor. (Search engine spyders like them too.) It is just a hierarchical listing of every page on your site with a clickable hyperlink to that page.
Summary
A good navigation system can increase the numbers of pages viewed by each visitor. This in turn can increase signups, customers, sales, members or whatever it is your site is designed to do and make your website more successful.