Web navigation design principles, part 4: May 07, 2001 issue of New Thinking

May 07, 2001 New Thinking:
Web navigation design principles, part 4

Website content management

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Gerry McGovern

Content Critical

Gaining competitive advantage through high-quality web content

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May 07, 2001

Web navigation design principles, part 4:
Follow Web convention

By Gerry McGovern

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

Many people instinctively see the Web as a single medium. Navigation skills that they acquire on one website they like to carry over to other websites – it makes life easier for them. In this sense, the more similar the navigation of your website is with other websites, the easier it is for the reader to get around your website, based on their past experience.

Over time a number of navigation conventions have emerged on the Web. The designer who deliberately avoids these conventions so as to be different achieves nothing except confusion for the reader. Confusing the reader is the last thing quality navigation design should do.

There is an old saying in art that ‘geniuses steal, beggars borrow’. This philosophy has a tremendous relevance for navigation design. Go to the biggest and best websites. See how they design their navigation and unashamedly copy what you need. Remember, conventional navigation design makes the reader more comfortable, thus more likely to purchase, or carry out some other positive action on the website.

There follows a selection of navigation and classification conventions that have emerged on the Web. It is highly recommended to follow them.

Global navigation. This is navigation that runs across the top and bottom of every page, containing links to the major sections of the website. The convention is to begin the global navigation with a “Home” classification. Other commonly used classifications include ‘About’ and ‘Contact’.
The classification name “Home” is the convention for the name of the overall homepage.
The classification name “About” contains content describing the history, financial performance, business focus, mission statement, etc., of the organization. Sometimes it’s used in conjunction with the name of the organization. For example, “About Microsoft”.
The classification name “Contact” or “Contact Us” contains contact details such as email, telephone, physical address and map location details.
The classification name “Feedback” is used to encourage feedback from the reader.
The organization’s logo should appear on every page. It should be placed in the top left of the page and should be linked back to the homepage.
The name for the search facility on a website is “Search”. The button or link that will initiate the search should also be labeled “Search”. (Search should also be initiated if the reader presses the return key.) The term for more advanced search options is “Advanced Search”.
The search box should be available on every page of the website. It should be placed in the top right hand corner of the page.
Every page should have a footer, containing global navigation as hypertext, as well as contact, terms of use, copyright and privacy links.
The colors for hypertext are blue for unclicked, purple for clicked.
If the reader clicks on a link they expect that they will be brought to a HTML page. If it’s anything else, such as an audio or video file, or a password protected area, inform them in advance. Tell them the type and size of file, and offer them a link to the software (Adobe Acrobat, RealPlayer, etc.).

Gerry McGovern

Next issue: Web navigation design principles, part 5
Previous issue: Web navigation design principles, part 3
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Over time a number of navigation conventions have emerged on the Web.