Hook, Line and Thinker

Issue 4

Navigating navigation - Part II

Last month I outlined the basics of navigation, touching on the various types in use. To review, click here. This month we'll discuss how to decide what navigation is best for your site.

Start with the customer

Put yourself if his shoes. What are his problems and goals? He has some kind of pain and he wants to know if you have the cure. A typical nav bar might have links such as "Services" and "Products." But in reality, the customer may not know or care if the solution to their problem involves a service or a product - he just wants an answer. You might choose, for example, to have sections for "Retail solutions" and "Wholesale solutions." Each of those sections may contain both services and products, but to the customer it doesn't matter - he knows where to look for an answer to his question.

How many clicks?

It's a balancing act - The more links you have on a page, the fewer clicks it takes to reach any page. But too many links is confusing; important information may be missed in the clutter. Conversely, if a site's structure is too deep, the number of clicks needed to reach a page becomes excessive. Go back to the user again. What parts of the site are of greatest interest? Make those sections prominent - one click from the home page. Less critical sections can be moved deeper. For example, say you have a technology product for sale. An area of great interest would be a page describing the product's benefits. White papers and technological specifications are less critical. By the time you have someone reading your specs, you've got their interest. A few extra clicks are not going to drive them away.

All links are not created equal

One common mistake is making all the links look the same. Use navigation design to gently guide your visitors to the most important information. One way to do this is through grouping. Your products, services and solutions are probably the most important. These links should be grouped together prominently. Links such as "About us" "Contact" "Customer Service" etc., are not central to the customer's primary need. They can be grouped separately - still available but not distracting from the main act.

Offer more than one path

By providing more than one pathway through the site, you expand your opportunities to entice customers. On the most basic level, this means that if you use a graphic menu, also provide a text menu for visitors who have difficulty with graphics. If you use pop-up menus, provide alternate submenus so that if the pop-ups can't be accessed, visitors can still navigate the site. But beyond that, consider in-house ads - little invitations to draw people to particularly interesting content. Or a list of activities to guide visitors, such as "I need to... Sell my business, Buy a business, Do market research, etc."

Be straightforward and consistent

Finally, make sure your links are labeled clearly and consistently. There is a strong tendency to want to be "clever" but I urge you to avoid the temptation. Call the link to your online trip planner "Trip Planner" not "Concierge."

This month, take a look at your site with outside eyes. Is it clear what is the most important thing on the site? Are customers' concerns directly addressed? Is the navigation easy to sort out at a glance? If not, then maybe it's time to rethink how you're baiting the hook.