Consistent and informative navigation is the most subjective aspect for the usability of website. It really doesn’t matter how great your website looks or if you have many attractive presentations on your site, but if your visitors got confused in getting there and find your site's navigation complicated then they'll surely moves out and you risk losing potential customers. It takes careful planning as a working navigation is the essential ingredient which helps people move quickly from places to places on your site.
The navigation scheme acts as a site’s roadmap. So you must have to give the visitors a sense of context within the site by retaining the same look and feel throughout the pages. You should design a website having pleasing beautiful graphics and rich contents but there is no substitute for a good navigation system. You must keep these pointers in mind in order to create the platform for successful frequent movement throughout your website:
Categorize the content and products
You should create smaller categories for organizing the content on the site. You can even arrange them in a tree structure with several subcategories. Your navigation panel specific to each category should be placed at the left or top panels so that the user can view all links within that category without scrolling and it will change w.r.t. the user’s movement all over the site.
Organize links
Your links should be organized in accordance with their importance. Place your main links at the top and remain consistent throughout the site. Visitors must get what they are looking for in various categories. Rests of the related links are to be placed on right or at the bottom of the page as they allows visitors to directly navigate to similar or related items. You should provide the descriptive information about the related links so the user gets the idea of what’s on that particular page.
Provide link to home page You must establish a home base which acts as a crossroads, for all traffic going into your site. From each page provide a link to the home page-‘Home’ link- so that if the users got confused or lost then they can return to the main page.
Readily avail Information
Make sure that your visitors should be able to find what they are looking for within 2-3 clicks on your home page. This is not an issue for small sites but if you have a large site with many pages then you‘ll definitely need a navigation menu that provides access to all the regions on your website. You can also provide shortcuts using site maps, tables of contents, and pull down menus accordingly.
Avoid excessive coolness Fly out menus of flash, javascript appears to be solve the problem of deep navigation (when moused over) by displaying additional links but usually they are not needed. If you want to have them then be sure to put plain text navigation links at the bottom of the page for search engine spiders and for users who don't have installed flash or javascript turned on.
Add search box Search tool assists in navigation and most of the navigation problems are solved by its use. Include a drop-down list for searching based on common keywords. It is very helpful for websites which needs to organize large data. If your site has a search box then better include it in every page at the same location to make the navigation task easier.
As the visitors wants to navigate through a site with a little work as possible. So if they navigate through the site easily it’s more likely that they might turn into your potential customer. The above said simple tips help customers and search engines navigate through your site, thus increasing your sales potential. Just by keeping these basic points in mind helps you go ahead and design an effective, clear and consistent navigation system for your site that help visitors get what they want easily and quickly on your website.
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