Simple Website Navigation – Best Practices
ByThe confused mind votes “no.”
That's an old saying concerning a new concept: website navigation. For some reason, we think that having a ton of links on our websites will make it easier for people to get where they're going or ‘force' them to go where we want them to. The real problem is that when there are too many choices, people tend to freeze up.
Navigating through a website should seem like coming to a series of doors in a hallway. If there are too many, it can instantly seem daunting. Given a clear choice of 3 or 4 can make the process clearer and smoother. We recommend no more than 6 – 7 navigation links on a home page. If you really need more, a drop-down window can help make it easier, because the choice to navigate further into the site becomes that of the visitor instead of something you thrust upon them.
Another way to keep top navigation more simple is page-to-page linking. A simple navigation link “Articles” will take the visitor to a page where more choices are, such as the titles of the individual articles themselves, and then clicking on those would lead to another dedicated page with the article body on it. This is similar to going through a house one door at a time, leading from room to room, instead of 14 doors to choose from as soon as you enter the foyer.
We often have a tendency to want to deliver too much information, just because we know a lot. For the website visitor who's just discovering this information for the first time, too much information can lead to headaches and indicision. Simple website design can make you a valuble resource to any industry.
