Website Navigation
To correctly describe web site navigation, we need to know the meaning of navigation. The word is derived from naus /nautes (Greek), which relate to sea and sailors. In addition to navigation, these roots have also given us other words like Nautical (relating to the sea), Astronaut (a sailor of the stars – Aster means a star), Cosmonaut (a sailor of the cosmos) etc. Closing our brief English language discussion, "navigation" is the science and skill of moving from one place to another.
Web site navigation is the science and skill which you apply to a web site that helps visitors move from one page to another.
Creating good web site navigation is the most important task a web designer has to accomplish in the web design process. Web site navigation is the pathway people take to navigate through sites. It must be well constructed, easy to use and intuitive. Poor navigation does not help users and often, your site can prove to be less accessible than others.
The most frequent issue in web design is that designers do not act and do not try to experience web sites from the user perspective. They are often misled to think that their web site’s navigation is the best when in fact it might not be. They might only have that impression for the simple fact that they’re familiar with it. It would be useful to open up a few sites and take a look at the web site navigation, how it’s positioned, how easy it is to go through etc. Consider how many pages you can access from any page. Can you go to related pages? Are there hints to help users navigate? Is there a site map with all the pages in the website? Can you figure out where you are at any time?
Good navigation is fundamental to good web design – in both business and informational sites – users should be able to find information easily. If the navigation is not easy to use or intuitive users will quickly go elsewhere in search of information. We often see ourselves in front of web sites without knowing what to do next. The navigation is so well hidden or disguised that the some users simply don’t know how to use it. Navigation is the single most important element in creating accessible and usable web sites.
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