Navigation consistency: While web site
navigation can be presented to users in a variety of effective ways, the most
important rule is consistency. In a multi-page web site, it is critical that the
user is able to move from one page to another without getting lost; the key to
this is to keep top level menu items available from every location on the site.
For example, if the site is broken into three major sections, users should be
able to access the home page and the top page of each of those three primary
sections from page by using global navigation. This global navigation should be
on the same place on each page, commonly the header or a left or right
navigational area are reserved for this.
Standardized terminology: In addition to keeping the location of the
global menu or navigational items consistent, the terminology used to define the
menus should be understandable to the target audience of the site and should be
standard with other web sites. For example, since the term "home page" is
recognized by most Internet users, it would be unwise to label links to the
first page of your site something different like "main" or "top."
Label locations: In a web site of more than a few pages, it is
important to have a system that shows users where they are on the site, relative
to other portions of the site. This can be accomplished in a number of ways. One
easy rule is to make sure each page has a heading that corresponds to the links
that lead to that page. In other words, if you click on a link that says
"browse" and you go to a page that says "product categories" it can confuse a
user. On a later visit, he may be searching for a "product categories" link to
no avail. In addition, if the site is deep -- with many levels of links -- you
may want to include "breadcrumbs" in your headings. Breadcrumbs are headings
that show the path you took to get to each page. For example, if you click from
a home page to "Books," then "Fiction," then "Mysteries," the heading at the top
of the page would indicate Books: Fiction: Mysteries with "Books" and "Fiction"
being clickable links for those who would like to work their way back.