Rule 3 - Navigation

The Navigation is the most important element on your page. You have to keep in mind that no visitor is willing to search long for the information he is looking for. Design your navigation as easy as possible. A little hint: before you design it, create a list with all the elements that your navigation is meant to contain. After you did that, think about it again. Are there perhaps three points that could be put together in one? Or is another ordering of the elements possible? Try to be your own visitor and try to think what he may think. “If I click here now, what do I expect?” “Is the labelling not a bit confusing?” The visitor always has to know how he gets from one point to another.

And: NEVER change the position of your navigation within your page!!

Let’s get back to our example-shop now:

Let’s pretend you sell printers. The question is, do you list all ink and laser printers in he navigation or do you sort them by fabricant and give the visitor only the choice between ink and laser. My propose is the first one, because like that the visitor can easily see which fabricant produces laser printers and which one doesn’t. The second choice would have meant that the visitor would have to choose a fabricant first and then you could see if he offers laser printers or not.

If you think about your navigation you can also think about the structure of your links:

Rule 4 - Structure of Links

You have to have a structure in all the links on your page. The visitor always has to know where he came from and where he’s going. Avoid a structure like a network and use some kind of hierarchy. In this context there are some useful programs to help you make a site-map.

Let’s take the printer-shop-example again:

I’m looking for the specification of model 1 from fabricant A. If the menu is build like in rule 3 said, I click on laser printer and get a list from all fabricants producing laser printers (wrong would be to list all models here). Next I want to see all available products from every fabricant I click on. Having found the model I was looking for I want to get detailed information.

You want to know why I have such an exact picture on how this should look? Well, I have seen it all from the side of the visitor. On the internet there are certain standards concerning navigation and link structure. Have a look how webpages are build that have nearly the same aim.

When you have completed thinking about these things, we can slowly start building your website. But pay attention! Even here are certain criteria you should watch!