Site Structure and Navigation
Posted by admin on October 9th, 2006leading usability study shows that only 27% of users will go to a site map when asked to learn about a site’s structure. The same percentage can’t find the site map page at all. Certainly the best practice is to present a navigational structure that is easy enough for people to use without having to resort to a site map page.
There are a few rules of thumb that are useful in generating usable site navigation. First, use names for navigation items that are specific and easy to parse. For instance, if you’re putting a news and events section on your site, a name like “Hot of the Presses” might sound cute but could be misleading. Does this refer to winery news? Reviews? Press releases? “What’s New” is a better title, although “News & Events” is even better since it is specific and almost impossible to misunderstand.
Second, keep like with like. It may be tempting to put a page about visiting the winery in a section linked from a “Contact Us” navigation link. After all people who visit the winery will be “contacting” the winery staff in some way. However, “Contact Us” is usually understood to have the narrow meaning of a contact form or link to an email address. It’s better in this case to have a separate navigation item called “Visit Us” even if there’s only one page in the section.
Third, keep it simple. The previous tip may lead you to think that a site’s navigation can accomodate any number of links. That way lies madness. If you have a page that doesn’t fit into the site’s navigation it’s easy to ask the question “where can I put this?”. Instead, try asking “do I need this?” What is your site’s mission? Pick one or two goals. If the mission is to sell wine and attract visitors, you probably don’t need a section on the history of the Pinot Noir grape. Generally any information on your site that isn’t crucial to your stated goals should be scrapped.
Moving forward, IBG is going to be focusing more on producing usable site maps for our clients’ sites. What goes on your site and where it goes is of primary importance; in my conversations with our Launch Manager Mattie Schutz, we’ve agreed that deciding on site structure is a crucial part of site development and will have a prominent role in our process. Moreover, we’re conducting our own research to better understand how people are using our sites so that navigation schemes and design practices can be improved even further to ensure that these sites best fulfill their mission.
Usability can be the difference between a good web site and a great one that visitors return to again and again. It’s a large and complex subject and one that I plan to return to in further posts, so stay tuned.
– Ben Chinn, Web Integrator
