So you were just at a website and were so impressed with their navigation bar you want something just as cool for your own site. No problem. If you know where to look you’ll find plenty of generators that will allow you to easily pump out some very slick menus.
Toolup.com Peer Review – Reorganize Navigation
Sorry, but your navigation drove me nuts.
Toolup.com Peer Review – Simplify Navigation
The overall site design loaded quickly, and the aesthetics of the site weren’t too bad. The only comments I have are:
Keep Your Navigation Simple!
Navigation must be simple. Since it’s the backbone of your site, it’s imperative that visitors be able to understand it. Here are two tips on how to make simplicity a reality in your site:
Simplify Your Navigation
Since navigation is the backbone of your site, it’s imperative that visitors be able to understand it. Here are two tips on how to make simplicity a reality in your site:
1. Your link titles need to be understandable.
Visitors need to know exactly what link to click on for the info they need. Unfortunately, visitors frequently get confused and don’t understand what a link means. Consequently, they aren’t sure what info they’ll find at the other end of the link.
More Laws of Effective Navigation: Navigation Must Stand Out
You’ll need to have a clear section of the page designated for navigation–one that a visitor will immediately recognize as the navigation area when he arrives at the site. Navigation should not necessarily be the prime focus, but it must be highly visible.
On many sites, the main navigation is overly subdued. It sort of “lurks” on the page, but it’s not the kind of thing that really gets to a visitor’s consciousness. It gets drowned out because there is too much color or excitement in the rest of the page.
IMMUTABLE LAWS OF EFFECTIVE NAVIGATION
The first immutable law of effective navigation: It’s gotta be readily available.
Visitors should not have to hunt for your navigation or wonder where to find it. If you’ve done your job right, it will be right there when they are ready for it.
The struggle in creating good navigation is to figure out what type of navigation the visitor is going to need, when he is going to need it, and where the most effective placement will be.
How to Design Your Navigation Structure & Common Navigation Mistakes to Avoid
Searching for information on the Web has recently become like a mine field. You find the site you want, only to be greeted by pop-ups when you enter, pop-ups when you are on the site and pop-ups when you leave. Other sites use a flash introduction, make you wait several minutes (which feels like hours), until the page finishes loading. Heck, you just want to find the information as swiftly as possible without having to watch out for these mine fields.
How to Create an Effective Navigation Structure for Your Site
A ship captain traversing the open seas without a good navigation system will surely get lost. Maybe he’ll strike sharp rocks and his ship will sink. A visitor who arrives at your site and can’t navigate it for the information they seek, will surely get lost also and leave in frustration. Your ship (your web site) will also sink if this continues to happen.
Website Navigation
Thinking of a web site as an architectural design is actually a good analogy. It must have a structure expressed as continuity in the layout scheme. It must be functional in the value of the things that it offers the visitor. It should be pleasing in the form of its design and detail. And it should be easy for a first time visitor to find their way around. When finished, your web site can be comparable to a skid row warehouse or to an architectural jewel such as “Falling Water” by Frank Lloyd Wright.