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2_tips_on_effectively_organizing_your_navigation
| 2 tips on effectively organizing your navigation
Not all links are created equal. While all of your links may be
important, you must sort and prioritize to come up with an
effective navigation scheme. Here's what you should keep in
mind: 1. Sort your links Your links should be organized
according to their relationship to each other. Any time you can
find a way to divide your links into two or more categories, do
so. If you have more than 5 or 6 links, categorizing becomes
very important. Try to find some natural groups. For example,
suppose you sell widgets, and your site has this set of links:
Mini widgets Multi-colored widgets Discounted widgets Contact us
About the company News Your major categories are: Products
Company info When you separate the two sets of links according
to those major categories, it becomes much easier to sort the
available information. The simple reason is that a choice
between two items is less complex than a choice between 6 items.
It's the principle of dividing and conquering. Take a look at
the following site: www.adobe.com Notice the four main
categories--Products, Resources, Support and Purchase. These
four categories help visitors narrow down at a glance which area
they need to look in to find the info they want. Imagine if all
of those links were lumped into one long list. How much harder
would it be to figure out where to go? Often, you might not have
clear-cut categories. For example, you may have three links that
all go together in one category (such as "Products"), plus
several more miscellaneous links. Even if the miscellaneous
links don't fit conveniently under one category name, you can
still group your links. Put the three product links together,
then all the miscellaneous links in a separate place. 2.
Prioritize your links Hopefully, you have some idea of what you
want visitors to do on your site. Your site should be designed
to drive a specific action--in other words, get visitors to do a
specific thing. Once you've decided what your primary goal is,
your navigation should reflect it. The links that pertain most
closely to your main goals should be emphasized the most. You
need to guide the visitor in the direction you want him or her
to go. Prioritize. Ask yourself the question, "What is most
important?" What do you really want to accomplish? (I'll give
you a hint: "About the company" should not be a top priority
link.) Here are several examples of sites that prioritize well:
www.fleet.com On the home page, you'll see three main links.
These links are geared at attracting the company's major types
of customers. All other links on the page are much smaller.
www.atomz.com On this page, it's clear that the company wants
visitors to click on one of their three product links: Publish,
Search or Promote. The site does a good job of getting attention
and guiding the visitor in a specific direction.
www.columbiahouse.com Right from the beginning, it's obvious
that the company wants visitors to join one of their three
clubs. All other links are relegated to the bottom of the page.
By carefully prioritizing, these sites are able to narrow down
the choices and make it more likely that visitors will head in
the direction they want them to go.
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
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