Looking for direction
Whether you are designing a new website, re-architecting an existing domain, or fixing user experience issues, site navigation plays a major role in overall user experience and conversions. Your top-level navigation should accurately reflect your organized online content system and provide users with a consistent mechanism to move through your site effortlessly. It needs to reflect your brand and seamlessly fit into the rest of your site layout and design.
The basics
If this article were in a magazine, you'd turn pages to read more content. If it were a book, you would look up chapters in the table of contents. TVs have remote controls, and libraries have the Dewey decimal system. Web navigation is nothing more than another method of accessing information in an online environment. Unlike printed material, the internet is interactive. Most sites don't house all of their content on a homepage, and website content isn't usually arranged in alphabetical order. Information is cut up into smaller, manageable pieces, and users must maneuver through the site to find information.
Navigation on the web can range from obvious to experiential depending on the type of site you have, the types of visitors you are attracting, and the way the site is organized. In this article, I'll provide some tips and guidelines for ensuring your site's navigation fits your brand's broader online strategy.
