Topic > Importance of Website Navigation - 1198

Happy NavigationGeneral: Among both website programmers and graphic designers, the importance of navigation cannot be understated. In fact, the success of many websites, including online retailers and other businesses, can revolve around the effectiveness of website navigation. It's a key component that directly affects you from a marketing and business perspective. Poor website navigation is often directly related to a website's inability to gain and keep a visitor's attention. Even the best types of website navigation create distance between the user and the desired content. An effective marketer's efforts are typically focused on closing this distance and manipulating the website's message to be as simple as possible. It is crucial to provide a positive user experience, and good website navigation is often the most important aspect of providing this. Website navigation is the gateway to the different content sections of your website, and there are some established best practice methodologies related to designing website navigation and layout. What should effective website navigation do? Alan Cooper summarizes that browsing information can be done using three main methods: Scrolling (content overview). Link (jump between content pages). Zoom. Ideally, navigation aims to: Provide end users with the choice of a small selection of pages to navigate. Clearly label navigation tab segments or pages. Adapt to changing user demands and expectations. Provide information about where the user is and how to return to the previously viewed page. Allow your website user to use an effective search function. This search feature......middle of paper......pears like this:Home>Baby>Booster Seats There are two distinct types of breadcrumbs, the first lets the user know where they are on the site. The second is dynamic and changes as you make different selections on the website, allowing the user to know which path they took to get to the current page. This is essential if a user opens a hyperlink within the content of your website in order to allow them to return to the site's index pages. Site Search Site search functions are essential when you have a website with large amounts of content to filter through. It is the most easily used method to locate information within a site and easily surpasses the process of locating a specific link within a navigation menu. However, they take time to set up and are difficult to implement correctly. If you use a third party to generate your search results