A well designed, simple method of navigation on a website is essential for both human visitors and for search engine spiders. Usually, from a web design point of view, producing something unique is a good thing but, when it comes to navigation, my personal opinion is to design with simplicity and consistency in mind.
So what makes navigation consistent? Users will be expecting certain things from the navigation of a website. They will expect it to be prominent and, in general, appear towards the top or down the left of the page. They will also expect to be given feedback about the page they are currently on and when they click or hover over links. It is also important that navigation is visible when the website first loads and is visible in full to visitors using different resolution screens.
Some users have certain types of content disabled in their web browser. There won’t be too many people who have images disabled but it is still good practice for usability to ensure that a website functions properly in a text only browser. Additionally, from a SEO point of view, a text-only browser can show you exactly how the navigation on your website looks and functions to search engines.
If you do use Flash, JavaScript or image-based navigation, it is essential to provide a text alternative for users who have these disabled, or who are accessing the website on devices that do not support them – such as Flash and the iPhone. Sitemaps are very common in the footer of websites and provide at least a partial way around the problem. However, my advice would always be to go with text-based navigation.
In conclusion, keeping navigation simple is key for a more user-friendly and search engine friendly website.
4 Comments
Text based nav and alt text for images is also really important for users with accessibility requirements
Yeah – good point Phil.
Another reason to make sure navigation is usable in a text-only browser – ensures that visitors with screen readers, etc, will be able to use a site.
There’s also the fact that if the navigation is simple and easy to follow then this sets the precedent for the rest of the site.
I usually request the navigation (the pages) of the site before I create it to define the scope and look for unecessary requirements of a web design project (i.e. do they need 20 pages of content?).
I’ve also noticed that some designers prefer images as navigation which is ok if you have alt text, but another solution is to use Google fonts, that way it can be indexable content and look good!
Agreed. Good structure and hierarchy is essential to keep things simple.
Google Fonts – I personally prefer the results I get from cufon (it’s used for the titles and headings on this site), but the point is definitely still valid!