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Compare the Diamonds.com navigation
to Burpee.com. What are
the similarities? the differences? Find different sites with complex
navigation and study the menu areas, keeping in mind the points that
we have discussed with this article. If you spend some time studying
why some navigation works, and why some feel awkward to use, your sites
will improve dramatically.
Plan, plan, plan. Test, test, test. It is worth it. There is a direct
relationship between a designer's ability to create complex and user-friendly
navigation and their success in the industry. Clients are increasingly
aware that they must invest in a comfortable and easy to use site in
the same way that brick and mortar businesses pay great attention to
the image and usability of their space.
Get searching for those great examples. Our own WebReference
front page, shown at the left, is not a bad place to start for a
variety of menus directing people who want information fast. (And fast
it is, using only text and <td> backgound color to present menus.)
IBM has created a navigation masterpiece,
shown below, and well worth close study.
Review your current sites, and if you have never created a site map,
do so now. Perhaps you can find better ways to structure your site.
Try to place yourself in your visitor's shoes. What do you see? What
is the natural navigation route? If you have a comprehensive site statistic
log, check where your visitors exit. Which pages get the most traffic?
Does the traffic pattern make sense, or is it possible that visitors
are getting lost and exiting prematurely?
If you can see problems in your statistics or through your site map,
can you apply some of the organizational tricks we looked at in this
article? Use your site map to visually trace out natural patterns. Sometimes
failing to provide one link between your pages can sabotage your traffic
flow and cause you to lose visitors before the site objective has been
met.
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