Designing Effective Web Navigation 4/2002

Page 4 of 6

Printable version

IX. Local (sub) Navigation

Local, or sub as it's often referred to; navigation helps the user to navigate within a major section of the site. In figure 6 the second row of "tabs" represents the sub navigation of the "Funds & Brokerage" section. Gartner's right hand navigational menu in figure 3 is used as the sub navigation of the "Consulting" section.

A. Position indicators

Position indication is imperative to a successful navigational system. Position indicators help users identify their location within a sites navigational structure. A user that enters a lower level page on a site, via a link from an external Web site, needs some way to ascertain where they are within the site. Position indicators allow them to recognize where they are.

There are many variations of how these indicators can be applied. They can be applied at all levels of navigation. Figure 6 indicates the users position based on the coloring of the navigational tabs. These position indicators tell the user that the page they are on is within the "Bond Funds" section, which is its self a subsection of the "Funds & Brokerage" section of the Strong Funds Web site. Gartner also uses coloring to indicate a users position within the site. Figure 3 shows that the sub navigation color of the "Consulting" section matches the color of the "Consulting" tab. Additionally the coloring of the right hand sub navigation menu shows the position within the consulting subsection.

Figure 6

Figure 7

X. Contextual Navigation

Contextual navigation is linking that occurs in addition to the global and sub navigational systems. This type of navigation may or may not be consistent across a site. Inline linking, which is simply making a word within site copy a link, is an example of contextual navigation. Some users find it distracting to have links imbedded within the article they are reading, because it tempts them to follow the link before finishing the article. However, most appreciate having the freedom to choose to follow the link or stay with the article.

Another example would be additional navigational schemes that are used to show related topics and articles. Notice how Gdoss.com (www.gdoss.com) utilizes a right hand navigational box [See figure 7]. This type of use could be considered a hybrid of contextual and sub navigation.

Page: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6  next >>