Navigation Design       Organize Your Web Site for Visitors

Navigation Design

Navigation is the backbone or framework of your site. The accessibility of your information relies on the navigation scheme which takes visitors from their entry point to other parts of your site. Keep in mind that not everyone will come into your site from the "front door". Once your site has been indexed by search engines, people will enter your site based on the information they are seeking.

What does a navigation set do?

• Enables the visitor who came in the "Front Door" to locate the information they need within a few "clicks"
  
• Allows a visitor who came into a specific page from a search engine to find the rest of the site.

• Make sure every page has a web site address for the "Home Page" in case the visitor saves the information and wants to come back later.

 
 

Types of navigation sets

• Links - basic hypertext links arranged in creative ways are very common, especially on high traffic sites. These are very versatile. Take a look at the bottom of this page. It is a combination of plain links and a table which gives a "look" of buttons with a better page load time. Creative use of tables as shown at the San Joaquin Region RCD Center can have very fast load times even though there may be a lot of information on the page.

• Image Maps - It has become very popular to take a pretty image and "map" portions of the picture to take people to other locations on the web site. If you use an image map, consider including a link set, too. Many people turn off the graphics portion of their browser to increase speed. In that case they would be able to navigate from the link set. In northern California, Yolo County Resource Conservation District has created a very effective image map for navigation. Notice they included a link set, too.

• Icons - little graphics used as buttons that when clicked will take you to another page. Icons are commonly used , but watch your positioning. Again, if you are relying on an image navigation system, consider including an unobtrusive link navigation set for visitors who have either turned off images in their browser or who have vision problems.

  CARCD the California Association of Resource Conservation Districts is a good example of icon navigation combined creatively with links. Notice the use of the text alternatives features as your mouse passes over the icons.

 
 

Do you build the Navigation set First or Last?

Depending on your work style, you may want to build your pages then build the navigation or you may want to organize your navigation then build the pages. Either way will work.

If you want to build the navigation templates first: Visualize the structure Storyboard the site Assemble the content files Assign names to the files and group them by your navigational headings Build your template page with the navigation set Add your data using the template pages Build your Welcome Page (or Front Door)
	If you want to build the pages first: Assemble your content into files Decide on file names Build the web pages and save them with the associated file name Group your files into directories Build your navigation scheme Add the navigation scheme to every page. Build your Welcome Page (or Front Door), which includes your navigation

 
 
After you've built the site, upload it to the server. Then you have some additional tasks:

Test your page.

You can check with Dr. Watson, a free service to analyze your web page on the Internet.

Another online service to check page syntax is at NetMechanic. They also have an online link-check service too.

 
 

Register your site pages with the search engines.

SubmitNow! Has a variety of free services.

 
 

Check any links that you may have to offsite locations

You can do this online at NetMechanic

Plan your updates, and schedule regular site maintenance

Plan to make minor changes and re-register your pages at regular intervals.

 
 

Include your web page address in any communication

Wherever you have your listed your phone number or District address, add your web site URL. This includes adding your webpage address to your email signature file. Build traffic to your web site using all your regular means of notification and advertising.

Nobody will beat a path to your web page anymore than they'd find your unlisted office address or telephone number

NACD Workshop 2: Web Design
created by Cyber-Sierra

Your Internet Presence	How Web Sites Work	Say What?	Design Basics	Navigation
Get Repeat Visits	Edit your Pages	Need a Pro?	Need a Domain?	Market your Site

 

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The beginning of the workshop is at: http://nacdnet.org/workshops/intro.htm