Keep
Your Navigation Consistent!
by: Jamie Kiley
One of the single most important aspects of effective
navigation is consistency. Why? There's a simple reason.
Visitors want familiarity.
They are more comfortable and more trusting if they
know things are going to remain the same from page
to page. They have a certain sense of confidence from
knowing what to expect.
If a visitor can quickly become familiar with your
navigation, it's much simpler to actually navigate.
And of course, that's the whole purpose of navigation,
right?
Besides familiarity, there's a second reason to be
consistent. It helps your credibility.
Consistency in your navigation helps you present a
unified, cohesive image to your visitors. In other
words, you look polished, well-thought-out, and on
top of things. Your visitors get the impression that
you "have it together".
On the other hand, if your navigation is inconsistent,
it reflects badly on you and your company. You'll
look disorganized and unprofessional.
Here are 3 ways to maintain consistency in your navigation:
1. Use global navigation (which is a set of your main
links that appears on every page of your site in the
same place).
Global navigation is an absolute necessity. It ensures
that visitors can always get to the main sections
of your website quickly and easily.
Global navigation options must be the same on every
page. Many sites resoundingly fail in this area. Often,
the order of the links varies from page to page, or
some links are missing on certain pages. This confuses
even experienced web users.
2. Keep the appearance and placement of buttons and
secondary links the same throughout the site.
I recently ran across a site that used three completely
different styles of buttons in as many pages. This
variation blew any unified appearance they hoped to
have. It also made it hard to recognize which graphics
were links and which were not, since there was no
consistently-used symbol for "clickability".
On another site, secondary navigation options were
on the left on some pages and on the right on other
pages. That's a no-no. Visitors will never be sure
where to look for additional options, particularly
since this site was visually busy. Don't move links
around from page to page.
Link colors, button styles, fonts, and placement should
be the same throughout the site. The goal should be
for visitors to instantly recognize a link when they
see it.
3. Stick with conventional design standards.
In addition to being consistent within your site,
you also need to be consistent with other sites. Don't
get too far out on the fringe in trying new things.
If you use a navigation scheme that's completely different
from what you see on most other sites, visitors will
likely be confused. Make your navigation look and
function like something visitors will be familiar
with from other sites.
About The Author
There are 605.6 million people online. Can they find
your business? Jamie Kiley creates powerful and engaging
websites that make sure YOUR company gets noticed.
Visit http://www.kianta.com for a free quote. Get
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jamiekiley@kianta.com
