Lesson 9 - Cooking Up Some Menus
Much like the list of ingredients in any recipe, I'll list out the ingredients that are required for darn fine navigation. When baking a cake, you wouldn't want to leave out the flour or eggs, would you? OK, then, don't leave any of these navigation tips out of your site design.
Keep in mind too that there are dozens of books written on this topic, so this list is not all-inclusive, it's just a good place to start.
Rule 1 - Get out of the way!
What do I mean by that? It means don't design your site around what YOU think the user wants. Think long and hard about what users are likely to look for when they come to your site searching for something. Then get out of their way and let them find it.
But you're asking, "how can I get in the way? I've invited people to come see my stuff, and here they are!"
Yes, you have invited them, but if they get to your party....er....Web site, and there's nothing for them to do, they'll go find a better party...er....Web site. Guests/users arrive at the home page of your Web site, only to find the virtual door locked while your really cool Flash introduction takes 15 minutes to load and run. In this case, they won't even bother knocking to come in.
Don't get me wrong. I love Flash and think it's the coolest. But you can use Flash to enhance, not impede your site's functionality.
As a side note: Flash's manufacturer, Macromedia, uses Flash in its navigational elements and creates clean, functional links. I've included it here only to show its potential. Flash is actually somewhat expensive to have developed or to purchase as software. But if you're thinking about buying a pre-created Flash file for your site, you might reconsider if it gets in the way of your users.
Rule 2 - Make Your Navigation Easily Readable!
There are oodles of 'sub' rules under this one....you might want to take notes (ha).
I cannot tell you often enough that your navigation needs to be seen! Seems like a simple idea, yes? Believe me when I say that there are too many sites out there with navigation that users either can't find or a minefield of links to try to work though. Here are a few essentials for making sure that your navigation is highly visible:
- Large fonts (greater than 10 points)
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