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Whether your website consists of a single page or multiple pages, you need simple and easy-to-use navigation devices. With your site, you really need to avoid what we call the "sins of navigation:"
- Using a complicated navigation device when a simple one will do.
- Using inappropriate metaphors as navigation "controllers." Ersatz radio tuning dials and VCR faceplates are common examples that may have seemed like a good idea at the time but aren't.
- Using any other cumbersome graphics as navigation devices.
- Using cumbersome phrases or industry terminology.
- Using multiple links to get somewhere the user can get with one link or action.
- Having dead-end links. (How many sites have you used where you can't return to the home page or another critical page?)
- Requiring users to pass their mouse over an unlabeled icon (or worse, a blank area of the screen) in order to reveal the navigation choices.
- Using pop-up windows as navigation bridges.
- Using Flash or a Java applet to generate the navigation images after the rest of the page loads.
If your site needs to be a little larger than you want it to be ideally because you have a lot of critical information to display, it's better to have more pages and keep your navigation devices really simple than to try to use fewer pages with complicated navigation devices.
If your site has enough pages or complexity that it needs a structured navigation device, a simple menu structure is fine.
Here are some examples of menu categories for a typical site that offers products for sale:
Home
Shop for products
Product specials
Contact us
Information on shipping/customer service
Company/product FAQ
Testimonials
If your site seems small and focused in its structure and organization, it will be easy to use.
Important Points to the Navigation of Your Website
- You really need to avoid what we call the "sins of navigation."
- If your site seems small and focused in its structure and organization, it will be easy to use.
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