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Keep Your Navigation Consistent!
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 a quick, free web design tip every two weeks--sign up for Jamie's newsletter: http://www.kianta.com/newsletter.php
MORE RESOURCES:  website design - Yahoo! News Search Results website design - Yahoo! News Search Results • Medical Website Design and Medical Marketing Powerhouse, Aurora Information T... COLD SPRING, N.Y., Feb. 7, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Building on its solid foundation in medical website design and medical marketing , Aurora Information Technology, Inc. (Aurora IT) receives accolades from ... • Fort Lauderdale Website Design Company, A Work Of Art, Inc., Gives Tips for B... A Work Of Art, Inc., a Fort Lauderdale website design and marketing company, provide tips why business owners need to hire a web design company who can provide them with the services needed to make their website effective in today's competitive environment and the costs associated with web design.Fort Lauderdale, FL (PRWEB) February 07, 2012 The decision of hiring of a website design company ... • How Pinterest Is Changing Website Design Forever Even if you haven't ever visited popular visual bookmarking site Pinterest, you might recognize its design elements -- which have been popping up everywhere since the startup burst onto the mainstream scene in 2011. • Elliottsweb, a Chicago Website Design Company, Welcomes Its Newest Internet M... CHICAGO, IL-- - Elliottsweb, a Chicago website design company, would like to kindly welcome its newest website design and search engine optimization clients:Kurt Hermanni is an experienced Miami immigration ... • IV Interactive Wins IMA ?Best in Class? Award for Website Design of Fertility... Award Recognizes Creativity and Leadership in Healthcare MarketingNew York, NY (PRWEB) February 07, 2012 IV Interactive received the ?Best in Class? award for the design and implementation of FertilitySolutionsNE.com from Interactive Media Awards (IMA). An internationally renowned competition, IMA evaluates websites for design, content, functionality, standards compliance and usability. Winners ... |
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