If you haven't read my earlier blog postings, you might not have realized just yet how much I enjoy talking about website navigation. And it's not because I've had nothing but pleasant experiences when dealing with this important topic on one end of the other. I have been unfortunate enough to either witness poor (borderline hideous) navigation, or to learn the hard way that the seemingly intuitive navigation I've created isn't always so intuitive to others.
To start off, I would like to briefly touch on the three main levels of navigation, home page, category page, and detail page. After reviewing a general description of each, we will delve further into their dependance on one another.
- Home Page - Over time, the home page has evolved from being the first page any visitor to a website sees, to often times not being seen at all by visitors. This is attributed to the development of search engines that allow users to find a direct link to specific pages within the site. Search productivity has increased for users, but it has been at the detriment of the home page to an extent.
- Category Page - Category pages are generally groupings of detailed pages accessible on the home page. Appropriate and intuitive categorization is integral to allowing visitors to drill down to the information they need. One situation that make categories so critical is the need to avoid sending visitors down a rabbit hole. There are few worse experiences for a first-time visitor of a site than to click a category and find details they didn't expect. Even worse is reaching a dead end
- Detail Page - Detail pages are the deepest and most magnified destination in web navigation. At this point, we are hoping the visitor has found the information they sought out to find. If not, they have reached the "dead end" mentioned above. It's best not to place too much information on a single detail page, ensuring the layout is easy on the eyes and scannable when reading.
Upon understanding the significance of these three navigation levels, one should consider how they can work together for the purpose of guiding visitors to and from the detail pages starting from the home page.
- Home Page > Category Page - You have a few choices when it comes to determining how your categories will sit on your home page. The grouping of categories is what is often referred to as "navigation", and you can have left, right, or top navigation with any variations in between. A typical top navigation might contain the following categories:
"Home"
"Products"
"Services"
"About Us"
"Contact Us"
Be sure your categories are easy to read, and make it obvious that they are "clickable"... in other words, placing your mouse over a category and left clicking will take you to that category page.
- Category Page > Detail Page - Once a category is clicked from the home page, users will be taken to the corresponding category page listing links to detail pages. The layout for this doesn't have to be over the top. Clarity is far more important to users, so a simple column of links that can be clearly read will do.
- Detail Page > Category Page / Home Page - Let's say your visitor has made it to a detail page...only it is the incorrect detail page. In their moment of disappointment, they look eagerly for a way to take a step back (navigationally speaking). However, you've done them a great disservice by leaving them with no choice but to click your large logo in the left side of the header that will take them back to the home page. Oh well, let's hope they remember which category they selected. Better yet, avoid this situation altogether by providing a link back to the category page that houses that details page.
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