According to an article written by Jacob Nielsen, typical user behavior shows that users almost always ignore navigation areas of a web page and look straight at the content. He asserts that “navigation is overdone on many sites” and that most users are extremely goal driven and do not understand nor spend time learning navigation and global design elements of a website but will click the back button in a few seconds if the page does not seem to contain the information they need.



If users therefore value content far above navigation bars and design does it mean that navigation is meaningless or useless? The answer is of course no. Users do need a way to go around your website and access the information they need and that is what navigation elements do; it connects the different parts of your website and provides a way for users to get from one part to another. Without navigation elements, visitors will get stuck on one page and not be able to access all the information they need. A good website will never do away with navigation elements but will make sure that it is designed in such a way that it will be very usable and helpful to the users instead of retracting from the page's usability.

When designing a web site navigation system it is important to remember that your web site is designed for your visitors and not for just for you, a few friends, or search engines. If the web site is designed for visitors then the navigation system should address their needs, and what visitors need is information. A good navigation system will always try to lead the visitors to the information they need with the smallest number of steps. Remember that navigation is simply the use of images and/or text to guide a visitor through your website and help the visitor go where he needs to go. A navigation system should always guide and help visitors because if they don't do that then the system is useless.

Tips for a Useful Navigation System

Navigation leads to reduced usability when it is overdone. As Nielsen said usability is affected when each page in the website is linked to every other single page. Usability is also affected when there are too much links on the bottom of the page leading to meta-features. To ensure that your website's navigation will be helpful to visitors and not be meaningless here are a few tips for a good website navigation system.

1. Make use of structural navigation. As mentioned earlier, do not link to all the parts of the website from every page. Instead simply provide links to all the levels of hierarchy above the current page. Although visitors usually ignore structural links they are still helpful to visitors who find themselves in a page that contains related but not the exact information they need. The presence of structural links will enable them to go directly to a higher level of the site which is a page containing more general information about the topic they need and which most probably has links to more specific information about the topic they need.

2. Have local links to the current page's related content. As mentioned in tip number one, visitors often do not land on the exact information they need when they get to, especially if they got there via search engines. However, the information they need IS usually found in the website but on another page. Having links to related content will help them get to the exact page containing the information they need. Examples of good links will be previous articles or new clips about the same topic.

3. Place your navigation system on the left or on the top, just below the header. This is usually the place where navigation systems can be found and most visitors will turn to left and top area if they need to navigate through your website. This is simply because it is what they are used to doing. So unless you are very sure of what you are doing stick to the conventional design to avoid confusing visitors.

4. Be consistent. If your navigation system is found on the left always have it on the left, or wherever it is you choose to put it. Doing otherwise would be extremely confusing to visitors. Make sure that you link categories are also consistent. Structural links will of course be different for each page but if made use of should always be present and at the same area of the page.

Navigation in Blogs

The above tips will help all kinds of websites improve their navigation system. Weblogs, however, are special and mostly “accessibility challenged”. Weblogs' navigations systems are usually inadequate. According to an article on Weblog Usability, two of the top ten design mistakes are that blogs often use the calendar or a timeline as the only navigation tool and that classic hits (popular articles) are often buried in the archive. Using a timeline as the only navigation tool is very inefficient and almost always useless in pointing visitors to the information they need. Visitors after all do not have any idea when you posted about certain topics. Both of the design mistakes signify the need for a better navigation system in blogs.

A more useful navigation tool would be categories. Categories should be detailed but not too many making the list too long and difficult for visitors to scan. For those who write about many and varied topics ten to twenty categories ought to be sufficient with less for those with less topics. When tagging posts make sure that the post isn't tagged for too many categories or else categorizing your posts would be useless then.

Having links to your more popular posts is also smart since your posts deserve to be read by visitors other than your regular readers. Having direct links to your popular posts will also help new visitors get acquainted with your blog and hopefully encourage them to come back and be regular visitors.

There should also be links to your other recent articles or latest posts, especially if your posts have a continuing theme. Do not assume that all your visitors are regulars and would know the context of your current post. Having links to previous posts will help visitors understand more about your current post.

However, even if you use categories, have links to your popular and previous recent posts, and follow the tips for a useful navigation system there is still much room for improvement when it comes to accessibility of information in blogs. A good discussion about surrounding the problems and possible solutions about accessibility can