Navigating Your Way into Your Visitors` Hearts - A Few More Details
(Page 4 of 4 )
Let’s talk a little more about what visitors expect from site navigation, and what will help them find their way. If you don’t yet have a site map, you should consider building one for your site -- and if you already have a site map, you should make it easy for visitors to get to it from every page on your site. If you have a really complicated site, you might want to add a search engine to it. Like the site map, this should be accessible from all pages on your site; the “traditional” location for it is on the top right.
You might have a web site that requires users to log in. If you do, remember that logging in and logging out are functions that any user will want to accomplish quickly. Therefore, you should put a login link on every page in a set location; ditto for a logout button. You could even set things up so that the two alternate smoothly (displaying the login link only for users who aren’t logged in yet, and the logout button only for users who are logged in). While there doesn’t seem to be a hard-and-fast rule as to where this function is located, I’ve seen it most commonly near the top of the web page, somewhat to the right of center.
Users may want to contact a company for any number of reasons: ask a question, register a complaint, buy a product, check on the status of an order, etc. Company web sites should have a “Contact Us” page that, like the home page, can be reached from any page on the web site. Whatever contact information you put on that page, make sure that you can respond promptly.
Once you finish sorting out your site’s navigation, try using it to find your way through your web site. Then have some friends and family try it out. Watch them while they're going through the site; ask them for suggestions, and take notes, but do not try to explain or defend your choices. You won’t be there to defend it when visitors come to your site and use your navigation, and they have the ultimate refutation to that kind of defense anyway – the back button.
Take your notes and use them to improve your site’s navigation. Then test out your site’s navigation again. Strive to make it smooth and intuitive. Remember the old saw “if you build it, they will come”? If you build it right, they’ll not only come, they’ll stay – and keep coming back. Good luck!
| DISCLAIMER: The content provided in this article is not warranted or guaranteed by Developer Shed, Inc. The content provided is intended for entertainment and/or educational purposes in order to introduce to the reader key ideas, concepts, and/or product reviews. As such it is incumbent upon the reader to employ real-world tactics for security and implementation of best practices. We are not liable for any negative consequences that may result from implementing any information covered in our articles or tutorials. If this is a hardware review, it is not recommended to open and/or modify your hardware. |
/ 5 
