Talk about website navigation design: Not all websites need navigation

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Web site Planning 70% of the work is carried out around the site navigation "-this sentence is wrong." Many excellent website success in navigation design, many bad failures in the navigation design, this phenomenon does exist, but this does not mean that the navigation design occupy the absolute center of gravity of the site planning work.

Not all sites need navigation

Planning this kind of thinking activity, once formed inertia also lost creativity. A lot of friends engaged in the site planning, always focus on the site's navigation, but many sites do not need to navigate, so the right site planning thinking should be the first clear "we need to navigate", and then "we need a kind of navigation"

Only one page of the site, they do not need navigation. Company profile, contact information, product services, such business card-type website is commonly used in the form of small and medium-sized enterprises in China, and these content can often be launched in a page; website construction companies to improve prices for the business card-like site deliberately complicated, at the same time to save the cost of the navigation programming, caused the cost of waste and user operation cumbersome; a minimalist web site, high-performance communication, pure function, is not required to navigate the interference; If you can make things clear in the least page, do not waste more pages, this is in saving social resources, but also in saving the user's time.

Usability Research website useit.com (Nielsen) is a typical web site without a navigation bar

The storyline of the Web site, they do not need navigation. Linear thinking can lead users into the destination step-by-step, as long as the content is enough to attract, then users are not stingy to increase the click; this narrative content dissemination focuses on the content of the depth of the steps by stepping to let users in-depth understanding of content, do not want users to leapfrog browsing. The story site does not bring a broad flow, must be like watching a slide as a page click down, but it can bring influence and profound transmission, users often take a breath to browse the end, and rarely to browse; So, what is the significance of the site of the story line? The main story of the site is to carry out viral marketing tool, usually people will be their favorite story site through a variety of channels to share to their loved ones and friends.

The famous web Standard primer "Why use table typesetting is unwise" using linear navigation-free reading

Users often do not know the existence of site navigation

Everyone has a website that is often used, even if it is a website planner. Now identify a site you visit frequently (this site must not be personally involved in the design), well, close your eyes and carefully recall, this site you often visit, its navigation contains how many items, the first project is? What about the last one? How are each item arranged in the navigation? Now do you understand?...... Even if you visit a website frequently, you can't completely remember the navigation content.

Google Chinese (google) may be your daily visit to the site, you can remember its navigation specific?

From the perspective of a common user, in the field of view of the consumer, scanning the content of the page, that is, what content in the page where the content is user needs, the user is not concerned about the existence of navigation, they only in the current page can not find the content of their own circumstances, will go to find navigation; Users do feel the existence of the page, because the page through the retina let users know it exists, users often do not know the existence of navigation, because the navigation system is an abstract concept.

Users use navigation to find what they need, this kind of demand is often very urgent, and you do not think that every user will be like in the Moon Mountain digging treasure as tireless, with the help of navigation, if you can not quickly find what they want to see, then they will turn off the browser and run away. At this time, a detailed site map will be more efficient and quicker than your carefully designed navigation.

The more flat the Web site navigation the more effective

Many web site planners like to use multi-level navigation, and some even in accordance with the logic of the navigation subdivision to 3 or even level 4, this is extremely unreasonable. Here we introduce the concept of a dimension, if each additional level of navigation increases a dimension, then the increase of this level will make the entire navigation system complexity increased by several times, and the user's operation will be a geometric order of magnitude increase.

An example of the flattening of two-dimensional navigation in a corporate web site

We have to be clear that navigation occurs because there is not enough content to be displayed at the same time in a single page, which means that navigation is not necessary. Whether horizontal or vertical navigation, if the screen is wide enough or long enough, then only need a level of navigation. This means that the need to flatten a multidimensional, deep navigation system, the price is to break the site column between the explicit subordinate logic, and the benefit is to enable users to quickly find what they need. The flat structure of navigation, is gradually becoming the mainstream of site navigation, which is why so many portals will be the first column in the navigation area with multiple lines, and you can find more extreme practices-the site's navigation is the site map.

Dell Computer's Chinese website: Website Navigation is the site map!

The difference between horizontal navigation and vertical navigation

We know that almost all of the world's reading habits are done from left to right (in ancient China from top to bottom), so in horizontal navigation, the item on the left must be more important than the item on the right? This is not necessarily because more and more users will navigate and paragraphs to distinguish between the jump-reading, there are "golden" State, it means that in the horizontal navigation, the last element will have a small jump; So, the experienced website planner will put the most important items in the horizontal navigation first, while the minor items in the horizontal navigation of the last one, the other items from the second in order to open.

Horizontal paragraph: Weight decreases from left to right

Horizontal navigation: Weight gradually lowered, and finally jumped

Because the user read the cross scan habit, the longitudinal navigation maintains a simple descending relation, the above weight is highest, the below weight is lowest.

Vertical navigation: Weight decreasing from top to bottom

Streamlined and reasonable navigation structure can be reused

Horizontal navigation + breadcrumbs as if the Web site navigation universal format, really reasonable? Does navigation really take up so much valuable screen resources? More and more ingenious designs combine navigation and breadcrumbs to perfectly solve the two essential navigational problems of where you are and where you can go.

A kind of web site navigation with less links for multilevel navigation

Successful navigation can be reused, although there is no navigation in the user's eyes, however, in the site Planner's vision of excellent navigation everywhere, navigation design does not exist any know-how and secrets, if you understand the characteristics of each type of navigation structure, then "doctrine" bar.

Finally prompts each website planner: Because the content so navigation, must not "design the navigation first, then meditate content".

Related reading:

Web navigation "breadcrumbs" navigation

Review the current domestic more popular 10 web site navigation

Feng Zhilaong: Analysis of "website navigation" and "breadcrumbs"

My view on website navigation planning and Design