Location Indicators

Location indicators tell your visitors where they are at the any given moment.  Understand that visitors can enter your website at any page, not necessarily on the homepage.  Therefore they need to be orientated.

It is also equally important that visitors navigating around your site have a clear idea of where they are both in absolute terms and in relation to other content.

Location information should appear on every page in the same place and in the same style at all times.  Location indicators should tell the user precisely where they are and this should be clear even to a user who has entered the site at an internal page. The location indicator should be identifiable for what it is and make sense in the context of other navigation.

On simple sites a page banner (text or graphic) naming the page will suffice.  It is also a good idea for the page name to appear in the main navigation so as to show it's relevance within the overall structure of the site.  However, this is not 100% necessary in all cases.

Color can also be used.  For example a different color background, contrast color or sidebar in each part of the site. In order to be the most effective, the color change should be reflected in the navigation as well, however this is also not 100% necessary.

Using ‘breadcrumbs’ on every page is a good idea.  Breadcrumbs show you a series of hierarchical links that you have used to go from page to page within a section. Using breadcrumbs is like leaving a trail of the path you have followed. The breadcrumbs appear at the top of the content section, just below the main navigation template. Each element in the breadcrumb is a link to that section or subsection. This helps in avoiding a series of back buttons allowing the user to directly go back to the main section page or another sub section. More importantly, it always shows the context of the page that is being viewed and how it belongs to a section or sub-section.

Navigation Controls

Navigation controls are the main navigation links; they allow users to move around the site. Whether they comprise images or text they should be predictably located in the same place, and with the same appearance, on each page.

These have several purposes:

• to allow users to move about within the site
• to tell users what information is available at the link
• to work with location indicators to orientate users.

A good navigation control:

• is clear: it looks like navigation
• leads to obvious content - users have a good idea what they will find if they click
• is consistent with other navigation controls
• is predictable in its style and location on the page.

There is no mystery to usability. It simply involves creating a site, which is accessible to the majority of people, is easy to use and get around and delivers on its promises. You can have a site that meets the most important standards of usability by planning it well and always keeping the end user in mind. Remember that web sites should not be designed for their owners - they should be designed for their users.

Problems with usability could be said to stem from just two sources: the site itself and the user. In fact the site is always at fault; if a user, however experienced or inexperienced, has problems navigating, getting information or understanding the site.

While websites have become far more complex, web users have become less rather than more experienced as more and more people go online. It is a mistake to think that the majority of users will be web or even computer savvy and will understand subtle clues about content. Most will not.

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