Web navigation design principles, part 1: April 16, 2001 issue of New Thinking

April 16, 2001 New Thinking:
Web navigation design principles, part 1

Website content management

Home I About I Services I Clients I Contact

New Thinking Home

Subject Classification
Reader Feedback
Subscribing
Unsubscribing
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
1999
1998
1997
1996

Books by
Gerry McGovern

Content Critical

Gaining competitive advantage through high-quality web content

The Web Content
Style Guide

The essential guide
for online writers, editors and managers

April 16, 2001

Web navigation design principles, part 1:
Reader-designed, fast download, with multiple paths

By Gerry McGovern

(Note: This is an excerpt from Chapter 8 of Content Critical.)

The fundamental principle of navigation design is that you should design for the reader; the person who uses the website.

Remember, navigation is an aid for the reader, so unless you’ve engaged with them, found out how they would like to navigate, you cannot hope to design a navigation that will meet their needs.

If a website is a publication then its navigation is its ‘table of contents’. In a traditional publication you have page numbering to help you navigate. You can hold the publication in your hands and flick through it. If it’s a large publication, there is usually an index at the back that can be used.

You can’t hold a website in your hands. You can’t get an immediate sense of its size or complexity. You navigate a website one screen at a time. That can prove to be very disorientating. It’s easy to get confused, to get lost. Creating a navigation system that makes the reader feel comfortable and allows them to find the content they want quickly is no easy task.

Navigation design should seek to achieve the following:

Facilitate the reader in quickly finding the content
they need
Provide multiple navigation paths for different readers
Let the reader know where they are, where they've been, and where they're going
Provide context
Be consistent
Provide feedback and support
Don’t surprise or mislead the reader

People talk about ‘sticky’ websites which keep the reader on the website for as long as possible. Sticky sounds yucky, uncomfortable; nobody likes getting stuck. Think of how you use a telephone directory. You want to get a number as quickly as you can. Many of the most popular websites (Yahoo, Amazon, Ebay) are like directories. Their strength lies in how quickly they can help the reader find what they came looking for.

Designing navigation is like designing a roadway signpost system. The overriding design principle is functionality, not style. A reader on the Web, like a driver in a car, moves quickly. Numerous studies have shown that people ‘scan-read’ on the Web, which means that their eyes dart quickly across text.

It’s important to understand that navigation is never the end objective for the reader. It is there to facilitate the reader getting someplace. Navigation works best when the reader hardly knows that it’s there. Thus navigation design should always be simple, direct, unadorned, with the overriding objective of helping the reader get to where they want to go.

If everyone wanted to navigate through content in the same way then the job of the navigation designer would be a lot easier. Unfortunately, it’s not that easy. Studies have shown that different readers have different ways they would like to navigate around a website. Thus, to facilitate a variety of readers and their navigation demands, a range of navigation types should be offered.

Some readers may want to navigate geographically. Some may want to navigate by subject matter. Some may have found themselves on a particular page as a result of a search
process, and may want to get to the homepage. Some may want to read the most recent documents like the one they have just read. No one navigation type will facilitate all the above wishes. Therefore, good navigation design allows the reader a variety of navigation options wherever they are on the website.

Gerry McGovern

Next issue: Web navigation design principles, part 2
Previous issue: Get feedback!
New Thinking homepage

New Thinking Newsletter
Subscribe to this free weekly newsletter covering the role and function of content on the Web.
More info | Privacy policy
Read the current issue

Email Address:

 Subscribe  Unsubscribe

Content management seminar feedback
"Gerry's presentation was very well received by the more than 400 higher education delegates. I've chaired this meeting since 1994 and very few speakers have generated the same level of enthusiasm. Wit and wisdom is always an unbeatable combination."
Bob Johnson, American Marketing Association

“Excellent presenter ... thought-provoking and relevant. I hope we can persuade him to visit us again one day.”
Malcolm Davison
The British Association of Communicators in Business

"Hearing Gerry McGovern speaking, one can feel that he truly masters the subject of content management. He was voted ‘best speaker of the conference’ by delegates."
Toon Lowette
European Association of Directory Publishers

Find out more about Gerry McGovern's seminars

The overriding design principle for navigation is functionality, not style.