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Why Good Navigation is Essential to Your Site's Success
By Todd Follansbee April, 2009 - part of the Good Navigation Series (described below)- First published in Web Marketing Today the largest, oldest internet marketing newsletter on the web - and still free.
Abstract - This is a 3 part series on how to improve navigation. Good navigation is more than just the navigation (nav) bar.
Also consider reading the rest of the series.
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Why do we need good navigation? When the reliable research company Forrester reports that approximately 50% of potential sales are lost because users can't find information and that 40% of users do not return to a site when their first visit is a negative experience, we should feel a strong call to action to make sure which side we are on.
Good navigation is more than just the navigation (nav) bar. It covers all the link elements on the site including:
• Graphic links
• Footer
• Site map intended for human users
• Calls to action
• Text hyperlinks
• Well-organized information architecture
This last point -- a well-organized information architecture -- is the heart of good navigation. Good information architecture is characterized by sensible categorization of items and information, and logical sequence of purchase steps, easy access throughout the purchase to necessary information. At its simplest it answers the question: "If I wanted to make a purchase, could I readily access all the information that I need to make the buy decision?" If you answer without having done some simple tests, my guess is that you are among those sites losing customers.
Over the next few articles we'll outline a systematic approach to (a) test your current site navigation, (b) determine what needs to be improved, and then offer guidelines for how to make the improvements.
If it were easy to build a site with good navigation, then Forrester Research's ™ recent review of 1,200 web sites (including e-commerce sites) would have shown more than the very meager 3% passing the firm's usability test.
Designing Effective Navigation SeriesNav Bar Guidelines - Part 1 by Todd Follansbee April 2009 A great User Experience starts with good navigation and good navigation begins with a good Nav Bar. Carefully follow these four guidelines and conversions should improve. Existing sites may have a hard time complying with all four but a new site should have little trouble. Any improvement will help so gather your information here and plan your redesign strategy read more
Information Architecture - Part 2 by Todd Follansbee April 2009
This article will address how to design your Information Architecture, how to present the information in your site and how to test read more
This article explains how to insure that the remaining navigation elements such as hyperlinks, graphic links, video links, calls to action, and offsite links, provide the correct visual cues and behaviors. read more
For information on our 1 hour site review offer go here.
To watch a short video of a usability test please visit the download page.
Reprints Policy - This article is free for reprint as long as you provide a link to this site and acknowledge ownership. For more information or special permission, please email me. - Thanks, Todd