| Free Adobe Photoshop website templates by Colorifer.com. Web design articles | |
|
|
|
|
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:
Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Web Site Accessibility Making your site accessible means making it available to be used by all. It's too easy to think that what looks ok to you will do for all. Transforming A Site From Good To Excellent One of the challenges of moving a web site up from good to excellent is transforming it from just a bunch of web pages and graphics to an interactive experience. Another term for this is community - a place where people can come to communicate with others. An Ideal Home Business Home Page From my personal experience of around two year as home business website operator as well as owner, I have spent enough time learning and unlearning. Observing other sites and constantly reading and contributing in online forums about managing a website. Creating Your First Website Building your first website can be very frustrating. It looks fairly easy, but almost always turns out to be more complicated than you expected. Database Driven Website The solution lies in creating a 'Database driven website', through which web pages are created dynamically which further gives a web site visitor an up-to-dated view of information stored in the database. When the information in the database is updated, site visitors will immediately see the changes that have been made. Some File Naming Tricks for Your Online Home Based Business Web Pages Conventional Wisdom states you should use Sub-Directories to organize your web Pages. Unfortunately the Page Indexing Tools Penalize your Page Rankings when you Do this, Many of the Page Ranking Algorithms in use today deem that pages closed to your Root are of a Higher Value then pages that are further away from your root. Choose & Use the Best Colors The Psychology of ColorAre you using the best colors for your web site? Many web designers often overlook the issues of color in web design. When choosing colors for your web site there are three main areas that should be addressed. 6 Website Design Disasters and How to Avoid Them?. Let's face it; the line from A Field of Dreams isn't the whole truth. There's more to getting people to come to something than simply building it. Graphic Design Can Make or Break Your Web Site We all want high impact graphics for our Web sites - Right.Sometimes it is easy just to pick a template that comes included with a site builder and or hosting package. Create Favorite Icon Favorite icon appears to the left of your link in either address bar or in favorites menu of your browser. It gives your website more personality, better visibility in favorites menu and is easy to create. How to use Emotional Content to Increase Visitor Response Did you know that many folks make "buying decisions" when they are moved emotionally? Other traditional medias have made the most of these principles and taken advantage of them for many years, whether it be a TV commercial or an ad in a magazine. People are emotional beings and people make decisions (either good or bad) when they are emotional. Website Checklist 10 Basic Things Your Website Should Have .. Web Design - 7 Key Things to Avoid A search for "web design" on Google returns more than 325 million results. So how do we start eliminating all these so called designers? Here are a few of the most common shortcomings. 404 Error - The Page Cannot be Found A "404 Error" happens when the web server you are on cannot find the page that you requested. This type of error is quite common and is seen all over the place. Is Your Website Color As Inviting as Your Home? Does Color Really Matter? We've all read the countless publications about effective web site design, outstanding written content and the never ending need for search engine optimization. But often the importance of color for a web site is overlooked. Quality of Your Text Layout and Design Why is the quality of your text layout and design important on your web site? For the simple reason that people tends to stay longer on a web site that radiates quality and simplicity.Why?Because it gives you a more professional impression and the text is easy to read. Simple Steps To Proper Web Design Over the course of the last decade, the Internet has grown beyond all expectations. Each and everyday there is a new website that is being developed. Converting Traffic into Sales Making a successful online business can be a long and tiresome adventure. For most new online business's this can just lead to failure and a website that just isnt making sales despite a high number of visitors. Color Psychology in Marketing On the internet we don't deal with face to face selling. The internet is a visual and psychological medium. Simple Lines and Shapes for Your Logo Design Geometric designs come in all shapes and sizes? and lines. You can create your logo design or customize your illustration by using simple lines and shapes to create your very own unique image.
|
|
2007-2008 © Copyright colorifer.com. All Rights Reserved. Free Adobe Photoshop templates. Web Design Articles | Site Map | Terms of Use 
|
