Intuitive Design (web navigation concepts)
In this post I will attempt to describe some best practices to follow when designing web navigation.
During my weekly dose of reading I stumbled across a very interesting concept involving web navigation. At the moment I happened to be reading “Designing the Moment Web Interface Design Concepts in Action.” The particular passage that caught my attention talks about how the system should speak.
“When creating application navigation, be sure to support the way a user thinks and not how the system thinks. The user is not the tool. The system is the tool.”
One way to encompass this ideology is to use verb-noun pairs. If you have a page within your application that allows users to upload a file to a repository the navigation link could be named “upload file.” However, after seeing many and many of the same links throughout applications this relationship might be a bit listless. To circumvent this I recommend giving a personal touch to the verb. In this case we could rename “upload” to “share.” The logic is simple as users are “sharing” files across the web application. The new navigation link would now be “share file.” Keep in mind that this approach may work for one application but not another and may be a hindrance to overall usability. The hindrance is small however and may exist simply because the user is predisposed to seeing a navigation link such as “upload file” across many web applications. For this reason it might not be immediately apparent to the user that “share file” is a way to upload a file. Ultimately, I think it is safe however to assume that any reasonable and cognitive human being should be apt to figure this out with minimal consideration. While this approach works very well for web applications it might not work for websites that are non task-oriented.
In the case of educational or entertainment based (non task-oriented) websites we can use a similar naming convention through the use of web navigation etymologies. In this way there is no need to break what isn’t already broken. For example, if within your website there is a contact page, the navigation link could simply be named “contact.” If you are looking to add a personal touch to this I would recommend using a thesaurus. The new navigation link could be “connect.” Keep in mind when taking this approach you need to keep the new word aligned to the same latin root. This enables you to still give an intuitive user experience but add a lasting personal touch! If you are looking for even more personalization think about accompanying the navigation link with short descriptive text about what can be found on the following page or possibly adding icons to the links.
Of course the best way to stand out amongst a crowd is to be sure your website is tailored to your brand and/or personality. Shameless self promotion coming… “Six Degrees can help you with that!”
When thinking of intutive web navigation the aforementioned processes only scratch the surface. What are some other approaches that can be utilized for intutive web navigation? Feel free to share them with us from the comment form below.
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I think, we should be following the acceptable trend of web navigation we are accustomed to. If you are supposed to upload a file, “Upload file” would be more effective than “Share file” because “Share File” would be confusing in many scenarios. Trying to be different than what is the trend around may not have a good impression on the visitors.