When I hit the shopping mall, I sometimes feel like a lab rat dropped into a maze.
Say, for instance, I go to buy a belt. First, I have to find a store that sells belts. Then I scurry around looking for where the men’s stuff is sold. After I get there, I have to figure out whether the belt rack is near the pants or accessories or shoes. It’s generally an exasperating ordeal.
Web site shoppers often have a similar experience. Which brings me to my point: Simple, easy-to-understand navigation is fundamental to good Web design. If people can’t see how to get where they want to go quickly, they’ll go to another site.
Here are a few things to think about to create a navigation scheme that keeps users clicking.
- Think in terms of primary navigation (important or high-level categories) and secondary navigation (subcategories and detail pages). For example, if you sell various types of lighting products, your main Products page should populate your primary navigation and detail pages for things like lamps, recessed lights, and sconces should be secondary navigation.
- Think less is more. Limit your primary navigation link to the most important pages (Home, Products, Order, About Us, Contact Us, FAQs, and the like). I’ve seen left navigation schemes littered with dozens of links. Rather than impress visitors with how much the site offers, this type of site runs the real risk of overwhelming visitors and driving them away.
- Think about providing a return path. If you have third and fourth levels of navigation, give deep-diving users a way to easily get back to place they started. Taking people down a tunnel and leaving them lost in it is not nice. Show “breadcrumbs” — links back to each previous page — at the top of each Web page and consider adding a Site Map page.
- Think about testing your site with your own lab rats. Invite people who are unfamiliar with your site to sit down in front of your home page. Ask them to find a product price or other bit of information. Watch and say nothing—you may quickly find that your navigation clues need revisiting.
You can learn more about simple navigation, and other e-commerce essentials, by downloading our free e-book, “5 Steps to a Successful E-commerce Web Site.” It’s a great resource.
But before you do that, tell me in a comment what you think makes for good (or bad) site navigation.
David Alexander