The navigation should guide users easily through all the pages of a website; it is not just about menus. Successful navigation should help a user to answer four basic questions:
1. Where am I?
Navigation should let the users know where they are in the site. Breadcrumb links, clear page titles, URLs and menu changes all help to show the user where he or she is. The larger your site is and the more levels it has, the more important it becomes to give your users an indicator of where they are in relation to everything else on the site. This helps the users to understand the content of the page that
they are on, and makes them feel more confident in navigating further through the site.
2. How did I get here?
Breadcrumb navigation often indicates the general path a user may have taken. In the case of site search, the keyword used should be indicated on the results page.
3. Where can I go next?
Navigation clues let a user know where to go to next – such as ‘add to cart’ on an eCommerce site, or a contextual link that indicates ‘read more’. The key is making the options clear to the user.
4. How do I get home?
It has become convention that the logo of the website takes the user back to the home page, but many users still look in the main menu for the word ‘home’. Make sure that they can get back to the beginning quickly and easily. Test the designs against users’ ability to navigate home. Never design based on your own assumptions.
