| It's easy to tell a poor web site from a good
one. Just take a minute to look at the navigation.
Poor sites make it difficult for their visitors
to find things. And the more difficult it is for someone to get
around on your site, the more likely it is he
will leave quickly.
You navigation system must be obvious and easy
to use. An image-map is great if it is very well designed
and loads quickly. Small buttons (images or java
script) are good also. Text links are great (they load fast).
It's common practice to line up the navigation
along one side of the screen (usually the left although I've
seen some good sites with the menus on the right).
If you are using Java or image based navigation
(even simple buttons), be sure and include text links
somewhere (usually on the bottom of the page).
You don't want people who have graphics turned off to
leave your site.
The basic rule to follow is: keep it simple stupid.
The KISS principle. Unless you have a very large site
there is no reason to use anything complex and
doing so will just increase your maintenance costs and turn
away visitors.
Some important things to include in all navigation
systems:
1.Every page should include a link back to the home
page.
2.I would include an email link on every page to
allow my visitors to easily communicate with me.
3.Be sure to allow for non-java, non-ActiveX and
non-image browsers.
4.If you use an image-map make sure it's fast loading
and obvious.
5.Dynamic HTML menu systems are great, but remember
this is only supported by newer browsers.
6.I love it when menu items change color as I move
the cursor over them. It makes it easier to see what's going on.
7.Don't use sound in menus at all. It's annoying
and turns away visitors very quickly.
Here are some of my personal pet-peeves about
navigation.
1.Strange, Java-based menu systems. Please, give
me a break. Man, how to slow things down and make it obscure in one easy
lesson. I was on a site the other day that had an expandable Java button
which mushroomed out into a multi-level menu. The button also stayed
in the exact same place on the screen regardless scrolling up or down.
It was beautiful, and it was horribly annoying. I did what a lot of people
probably do when they visit that site - I left.
2.ActiveX based menu systems can be very, very fast
and look very slick. But they use ActiveX, a technology which has
many, many security holes (some real, some just perceived). ActiveX menu
systems require scripting, which increases site maintenance costs. Also,
because of the perceived security risks, many users will not use a site
which requires an ActiveX control to be installed.
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