“Navigation” comes from two Latin words: navis (ship) and agere (to drive). According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the general meaning of “navigate” is “to steer a course through a medium… to get around, move… to make one’s way over or through… to operate or control the course of.”
It is a mistake to design Web navigation as if it were a neon light. The objective of navigation should never be flashy. The job of navigation is not to grab attention. Rather, navigation design is about creating clear and consistent signs. Readers turn to navigation when they want to get somewhere on the site. First and foremost, they want something that is functional and informative.
A traffic light system is clear and consistent. It uses three colors: red, amber, and green. And it uses them in a consistent order: red first, amber in the middle, green at the end. I have yet to hear anyone complain traffic lights are boring and should change their design.
Hypertext colors are a bit like traffic light colors. Hypertext changes color to support Web navigation. Blue represents links that have not been clicked. Purple represents links that have been clicked. Many designers take the liberty to change these colors. Why? For what purpose? Changing the color of hypertext is like changing the color of traffic lights. All it does is confuse.
Too often, Web designers view navigation as a neon light. They become more concerned with how it looks rather than how it works. The more arty the Web site, the more obscure the navigation becomes, as if navigation were some sort of creative statement. Making navigation obscure, making it look like New York’s Times Square, is not artistic. It’s bad Web design.
According to Jonathan and Lisa Price’s recent book, “Hot Text,” “If you want to help your visitors, you must think of each menu as a set of well-lit street signs. The challenge is to organize and write those signs so that visitors can find their way while moving at high speed.”
When designing navigation for your Web site, keep the following in mind:
-Make sure it’s readable. Use a sans serif font in an appropriate size.
-Make sure it’s consistent. Decide on a structure for your navigation and use that structure consistently throughout your Web site.
-Keep hypertext colors blue for unclicked, purple for clicked.
-Place the main navigation for your Web site on the far left of the page. That’s where readers expect it to be.
-Your navigation should be “invisible” until it is wanted. Never let it flash, and never design it in a way that dominates the page.
-Always use text in your navigation. If you use icons, make sure there’s a text description under each one.
Gerry McGovern is a Web consultant and author. His most recent books are Content Critical and The Web Content Style Guide, published by Financial Times Prentice Hall. His personal Web site is at www.gerrymcgovern.com.
