Web navigation design principles, part 3: April 30, 2001 issue of New Thinking

April 30, 2001 New Thinking:
Web navigation design principles, part 3

Website content management

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April 30, 2001

Web navigation design principles, part 3:
Provide context, and be consistent

By Gerry McGovern

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

In navigation design it is important to provide context for the reader, so that they know how a particular piece of content relates to other content on the website. Equally, it's important to be consistent. There's nothing worse than navigation that keeps changing its design for no logical reason.

Provide context
In a Web full of 550 billion documents, context is essential. Studies show that in the majority of cases, the reader does not know exactly what content they need. Rather, they have a general idea.

Navigation presents the reader documents of content that are interconnected. It guides the reader and informs them of content that the organization has that the reader might not have been aware of.

Let’s say that you go to the IBM or Dell website with a view to buying a notebook computer but you’re not sure what type. The navigation will quickly guide you to the section for notebooks, where the full range will be presented in summary form. If you want to find out more on the Dell ‘Inspiron,’ the navigation will guide you to the Inspiron ‘homepage’.

Links on the Inspiron homepage include ‘Rewards and Reviews’. Now, you may not have thought about looking for this type of content when you started your search, but once you see the link, you may well wish to see what sort of rewards this computer has received.

Traditionally, the sales rep would have casually informed the potential buyer as they examined the computer, that such-and-such a magazine had recently given it an award. This vital work must now be done by a navigation approach that creates the best possible context.

Be consistent
If you are driving you get used not just to what the road signs say, but also their size, shape and color. If you are driving along following a set of signs and suddenly they change shape, size and color, your immediate response is one of confusion and hesitation. Thankfully, few countries change the design of their signs from region to region or town to town. Not so on the Web, where navigation can change in an ad hoc manner within a particular website.

Readers often turn to navigation when they’re confused or lost. Don’t confuse them even more by displaying inconsistent or unfamiliar navigation design. For example, if you decide to put navigation in the left column, don’t then switch it to the right column in another section of the website.

Consistency of language is critical for successful navigation. For example, don’t name a link “Home” in one section of your website and “Homepage” in another section. That only serves to confuse the reader. Establish the language and terms you are going to use in your navigation approach and use them exactly as you have defined.

Treat your navigation and classification as if it was ‘written in stone’ because otherwise you risk confusing your regular readers (customers), and these are the people you should at all costs avoid confusing.

Think about it this way. You visit Dublin city center regularly. Your favorite clothes shop is situated on ‘Grafton Street’ which is right beside Trinity College. If the next time you head to Grafton Street you find that a new street with a whole new set of shops has been placed between Trinity College and Grafton Street, won’t you feel somewhat disoriented?

People are by nature habitual and conservative. If every couple of months you change the structure and navigation of your website, you will risk alienating those who are regular visitors and have got used to your previous navigation and structure.

Gerry McGovern

Next issue: Web navigation design principles, part 4
Previous issue: Web navigation design principles, part 2
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Most people don't know exactly what content they are looking for when to get on the Web.

Think of navigation like it was a road sign system.