LINMO

Guidelines: Navigation

Navigation in a web context is the moving among the pages on a website or among websites by a user by following hyperlinks. Users can navigate for the purpose of going to some specific page or just exploration (e.g., to see what content is available).

Ease of navigation is fundamental to the usability of web sites and thus to to LINMO-compatible web sites. Usability is the ease, efficiency and satisfaction with which a product can be used. Unfortunately, it is frequently not given the attention that it deserves, making navigation unnecessarily complex. This can result in frustration for users and thus often in disappointment for site developers as well.

LINMO-compatible web sites make navigation as easy and intuitive as possible in large part by means of maintaining a very simple hierarchy of pages, which can be described as being broad and shallow, in contrast to the narrow and deep hierarchy used on many web sites. Specifically, any page is a maximum of only two mouse clicks away from any other page on the site, and the most relevant pages are often only a single click away.

Moreover, this is accomplished in a manner that is consistent with the other LINMO goals, including maintaining an elegant simplicity of the visual appearance of pages, a simplicity that has worked exceedingly well in hard copy (i.e., printed on paper) books. That is, pages are not cluttered with numerous links in the margins or at the top or bottom.

The ease of navigation on LINMO-compatible web sites is attained by the following:

(1) The first time a specialized term or concept is used on a page, it is made into a hyperlink if another page on the same site exists the main topic of which is that term or concept. This links the user to any relevant page with a single click. (If a suitable target page does not initially exist but is added later, a link can be added at that time or whenever practical.)

(2) Placing a link to the home page in the very upper left hand corner of each page (except, or course, for the home page). This makes it easy to go to the home page, which contains links so several key pages on the site. These linked pages include the general index and a page that explains in detail about the topic or purpose of the web site. Among the other particularly useful links for a home page would be to a FAQ (list of frequently asked questions and answers) and to a chronological list of new additions to the site.

(3) Placing a link to the general index immediately to the right of the link to the home page (with just a short intervening horizontal space). This index lists every page on the site, both in alphabetic order of the descriptive title and according to each keyword in that title. Because of this comprehensive nature, any page on the site is a maximum of two mouse clicks away from any other page. This eliminates the labyrinthine navigation that is found on many web sites and prevents users from getting lost on the site.

This link, in contrast to other links, contains no text and is not visible to the user until the mouse cursor passes over it. The purpose of making it hidden is to reduce page clutter. Even in the event that a user is not aware of this link, the site will still be extremely easy to navigate; however, the existence of this link will likely soon become apparent to most users. The link to the home page is not hidden because that link serves the additional, important function of immediately identifying the site to users who are directed to if from a search engine or some other external page.

(4) For large sites, it can be useful to supplement the general index with specialized indexes. This makes it easier for users who are interested in some set of subtopics of the main topic of the site to see what is available. For example, if the main topic of the site were chocolate, there could be one specialized index each for pages about the historical, production, economic, medical and utilization (e.g., recipes and techniques for using) aspects of chocolate.

(5) Having a index that lists pages in the order in which they were added to the site, with the most recent addition at the top of the list. Pages that have undergone a substantial updating or revision should be given another entry for the date of modification. This index makes it easy for users to find the newest content on the site. It can also help users search for some item that they encountered some time ago but for which they can not remember the page name or, perhaps, even the exact topic.

(6) Minimizing page byte size allows any page to which a user navigates to open quickly. This is just one of the benefits of making each page as small as possible in terms of bytes without reducing the amount of content or adversely affecting its usability.

(7) Not using technologies such as javascript and Flash for links. These can add unnecessary complication to site navigation for users and have some serious disadvantages. Among them are that the back button on the web browser might not function correctly and it can make it difficult for web search engines to locate and index pages (thereby making it harder for users unfamiliar with the site to find out about it).