articles

The Need for Web Site Navigation

By Theresa Wilkinson, W-edge design
Reprinted with permission from the STC Intercom magazine - June 1999 Volume 46, Issue 6.

One of the things I love to do -- and I am asked to do it a lot -- is to critique existing Web sites and look for ways to improve them. Something I usually can't find (but can never figure out why) is a usable navigation system.

Some of these sites are personal pages, some sites promote news, and some that I have stumbled across actually promote businesses. I always wonder whether the people who put up these sites really want users to visit their site, because if they do, why do they make it so hard for users to get there and find things on their sites? If a user cannot find what they are looking for on your site, they won't look over your personal page, read your news story, buy anything from your business, or hit your page again.

I know that a Web site with good navigation will put you closer to your goals than one without. The article that follows may give you ideas for adding navigation to your own site.

Spotting a problem

I stumbled across an interesting Web site while surfing around in the MSN Native American forum last year; the Web of Oklahoma Indian Times. To my surprise, this site exemplified the typical Web site in that its navigation was, in my opinion, unsatisfactory.

In my critique of the site I commented on the length of the main page, the large font size, and the graphics:

Initial impression is that the main page is too long, font size is too large, and graphics do not add to the content. This page does not really accomplish much and does not effectively introduce the navigational system, nor the purpose of the site. It does not reflect a professional site.

This site is very poorly organized, thus very difficult to use. Image map is a pretty bad graphic and hard to use. I don't like the "chains," it has bad connotations and presents a very unprofessional look. The site as a whole does not reflect a purpose or real goal. There is no company information -- it is buried within the Advertising info.

This site does not try to "sell" the user in any way. I would suggest showing the user good articles from each paper in a more effective way as an incentive to purchase a subscription. All successful Web sites give away "something for nothing," thus the reason for the popularity of the Internet. This site does not accomplish that or really anything.

Every graphic on the site, and page for that matter, should have a purpose that adds to the site's overall purpose. Most graphics on this site are too large (long download times) and meaningless. It looks as if you are putting graphics on the page just to show you can.

Now, I was challenged. I was also trying to start my own Web design company and needed to show the world what I could do. I emailed the company and, very succinctly, said that whatever they paid for this Web site was too much and I would redesign it for free. Needless the say they responded in the affirmative.

Getting down to business

After talking in length with Jim Gray, the co-publisher of the Oklahoma Indian Times (OKIT) newspaper Tulsa, Oklahoma), I faxed him my critique of the site. He agreed me that the site needed help, so we started on the next order of business -- to define what he wanted in a Web site.

After my phone conversations with Jim, I knew generally what he wanted the site to accomplish. So I wrote up a design document for the site detailing general and specific goals, target audience, and a task list. I faxed it to him and asked him to number the goals in order of importance.

General Goals:

• Give more professional appearance to site
• Promote the Oklahoma Indian Times company
• Promote the Oklahoma Indian Times newspaper
• Communicate the Indian point of view

Specific Goals:

• Sell newspaper subscriptions
• Sell advertising for newspaper and Web site
• Communicate the Indian point of view
• Promote Native American events

The specific goals will be measurable by increased number of subscriptions, increased number advertisements for newspaper and Web site, and increased event promotions. How will success be measured on communicating Indian point of view? Emails from users?

Target Audience:

• People coming to find out the company
• People coming to find out the paper
• People coming to subscribe to the paper
• People coming to find out about advertising
• People coming to find out about events and meetings
• Current subscribers with problems

Task List:

• Obtain newspaper stories (limited access)
• Obtain information on about company
• Obtain information (in answer to problems) and way to subscribe to newspaper
• Obtain information about advertising in newspaper and Web site
• Obtain information about current events
• Obtain information and/or links to other Native American sites

Defining the site
After receiving Jim's email with the goals numbered in order of importance, I was ready to define the content areas and begin defining navigation.

Content areas:

• Main page - areas areas such as news, events, etc. It should describe the company, should contain any ads, should contain a link for comments.
• News - the news stories
• Company or About Us - brief history of paper - publisher's name, names of staff (co-publisher, editor, editorial assistant, etc.), office address and phone number
• Subscribe - rates in U.S. dollars (Internet discount if applicable) address and phone number
• Advertise - information (press kit) on newspaper and Internet rates
• Opinion - an editorial and any comments from Internet users
• Events - any promotions or meetings, ads
• Links - links to other sites (should have reciprocal links i.e., they should have your URL on their page)

Some special considerations

The navigation system you develop for your site should be appropriate for your site and support the user's goals and behaviors. The location of navigation bar can appear anywhere -- top, left side, or right side. Some sites even have bottom navigation (they use frames). But, to avoid confusion, always put the navigation in same place on every page.

Avoid, if you can, putting navigation in proprietary format (Java Script rollovers that cannot be viewed in Internet Explorer 2.0). This cannot always be avoided. Also, use your ALT tags effectively for those who turn off graphics. Use navigation shortcuts -- site maps, index, contents list -- for large, complex sites.

Avoid navigation elements that looks too much like text, like other images on page, or are visually confusing. For example, I was asked to add a site to the OKIT's links page. I could not get any of the links to work. I clicked on underlined words but nothing happened. I emailed the owner of the site and described the problem. Then I realized that these "links" were actually names of his content areas. His buttons were actually smaller words at the bottom of the page. I revised my email appropriately. He emailed back and thanked me for my input and has changed his site accordingly -- it is now much easier to use.

Secondary and third-level navigation can be tricky, so use visual hierarchies, color, position, and size to show the user where they are on the site.

A word about labels

Labels are words or phrases used to identify your content areas. For example, "news" and "company" are labels. They are based on based on common sense and customer sensitivity. When thinking of words for labels, use the terminology of your users not hieroglyphics, shorthand, or organization-specific language. Use text labels and navigation with icons.

I do recommend that you user-test your labels and navigation. For the OKIT site, I did this through emails with friends and interviews with the staff at Oklahoma Indian Times.

Building the site

I took my time building this site: After getting approval on the main content areas, I started the paper prototype to demonstrate how the site would look and how all the pages would work. I faxed this to Dan Mink, the graphic artist for the paper, and asked him to start developing some graphic ideas. I decided on left-side navigation, which would appear on every page of the site, so we would not affect the site design if we added new areas. On completion of the prototype, I started building the skeleton site and writing text for the Subscription, Company, and Advertising areas. In Tulsa, I worked closely with Dan on the graphics. I also built the News pages, Opinion, Events, and added some links to the Links page. When the graphics were complete, I put them into the site.

A big hit

The new site was launched in mid-April 1998, about fifteen minutes before my flight out of Tulsa. The old site registered about 6,000 hits a month. In the two remaining weeks in April, the site registered 10,000 hits. The hit count has continued to grow steadily, especially with search engine registration, and is now around 100,000 hits a month with a world-wide audience. The new design is a success with the increased hits, subscriptions, and increased sale of pow-wow guides.

Improving the navigation of a Web site has tangible benefits. With a little bit of planning and creativity, you can bring similar benefits to your site.

References

Apple Computer, Inc. Apple Web Design Guidelines.
Bailey, Samatha. Love Your Labels Webreview.