A ship captain traversing 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 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. Good site design means a good navigation structure for your web site. This means visitor can find information with ease. Put yourself in shoes of your Grandmother. Would she quickly and effortlessly be able to find information she wants, or know what to click on to make purchase? Don't think that just because it is easy for you, it will be easy for others.
Visitors should not need to click more than three times during their navigation, to find information they are searching for.
1. Navigation Styles These can range from navigation buttons, navigation bars, plain text links, fancy animated graphics or drop-down select menus. You can also use illustrations, photographs or graphic images to show your visitor around. For example, an image map contains one graphic with different "hot spots"(invisible buttons) that link to other pages.
2. Primary and Secondary Navigation Primary navigation consists of navigation elements that are accessible from most locations within site.
Secondary navigation elements allow user to navigate within a specific location. For example, many sites have a page that offers information about company. The primary navigation element may be an About Us link.
Once user arrives on About Us page, there will be other links (secondary links), which navigate within About Us page.
These could be links to Press Releases, Corporate Locations, Investor Information and so on. These links are secondary navigation elements because they are relevant to About Us page but not other pages of site. Therefore, these links will not be found in other areas of site.
3. Guided Navigation This is a popular technique, in which you guide visitor through your site. Links are provided for next step and establishing links that keep users on track continues process. These links should supply necessary information, as well as an alternate course clearly marked to allow visitor to exit. For example, an online purchase should lead user through shipping information, then on to payment information, then to receipt information.