Navigation:
Minimum Size - Maximum Effectiveness
Part 2 of 2
by Brandon Jubar
Nav Bars, Menus and Links
Navigation Bars (nav bars), or navigation menus, should be complete enough to
allow ease of movement across topic areas, yet not so detailed that they become cumbersome
to use. By placing higher-level nav bars at both the top and bottom of your pages, you may
fulfill the needs of most smaller Parish Web sites. These top and bottom nav bars should
be aligned with the major topic areas you have chosen, and would most likely link to a
Main Topic Area Page rather than a content page.
If you are using a Web publishing program such as Microsoft FrontPage, you can
include automatic nav bars wherever you like. The difficulty with using these automatic
nav bar generators is making sure that the pages you want included are on the appropriate
level in the navigation scheme.
Rather than attempting to learn the quirks of these automated functions, it is
easier to simply include a table below your page title. Each cell in the table would
contain the name of the Topic Area, with a hypertext link to the appropriate page. By
setting the background color of this table to something other than white, your nav bar
looks more professional and resembles an actual graphic menu bar.
Parish Home
Page |
| Families |
Just for
Kids |
Teens Only |
Young
Adults |
FAQs |
Music
Ministry |
Religious
Education |
Youth
Ministry |
RCIA |
Family
Ministry |
If your Parish Web site is a larger, more content-rich site, you will want to
incorporate more topic-specific menus, in addition to the nav bars at the top and bottom
of the page. Many web surfers have become accustomed to looking at the left column of the
page to locate the topical menu, and that is where I prefer to place it. Using our earlier
example, the left column within the "For Teens Only..." topic area would look
something like this:
|
| 'For Teens' Home |
|
Youth Group |
|
Religious Education |
|
Service Opportunities |
|
Lifestyle |
|
Opinion Page |
|
Self-Help |
|
Message Boards |
|
Navigational bells and whistles are not recommended by the ParishWebmaster.com.
Keep your menus simple and easy to use. Your main focus should be on providing excellent
quality content. Don't let your Parish Web site fall victim to navigation overkill!
On the other hand, don't create a 'navigation famine' either. If you leave your
visitors starving for ways in which to explore your site, your wonderful content will
never have a chance to feed their spiritual needs. The 80/20 Rule is a good guideline:
- 80% of the pixels on your page should be providing meaningful content
- 20% should be titles, logos, navigation, etc.
Remember: you really can have too much of a good thing!
Place Links in the Text Body
As a reader goes through your text, the ideas you present will trigger thoughts
and reactions. A prime spot for a text body link is any place where a question may arise
in the mind of a reader.
When you are creating links within the body of your text, the Parish Webmaster
should make sure to note any links that s/he would like to have. These are prime topics
for future site content.
NOTE: I strongly advise against using the "click here for more
information" link. The text body link must be a word (or words) with significant
meaning. The link should not break the flow of the content, yet provide an obvious link to
further information for those interested.
Offer Options at the End
Another strategy is to offer your readers links to related topics that might
interest them. Place these links at the end of your text/content. This eliminates the
distraction sometimes caused by a right sidebar, which interferes with the path of their
reading. I also recommend including a brief synopsis, explanation or review of what the
reader will find at the end of the link. An excellent way to build credibility is to
provide links to relevant content.
In addition to offering new links to related content, you should also list links
to some of the same sources as your text body links. If a reader did not follow a text
body link earlier, this will save them from having to scroll back through the text to find
these related links.
A good practice to get into is actually giving the URL with each of these links.
That way, if someone prints your article so they can read or refer to it later, they will
have the exact URLs of the related content you have identified.
A 'related subjects' link found at the end of an article might look something
like this:
Related articles...
Is Navigation Useful by
Jakob Nielsen: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20000109.html
"For almost seven years, my studies have shown the same user behavior: users look
straight at the content and ignore the navigation areas when they scan a new page."
So what does a Web master need to focus on when designing
navigation?
Mr. Nielsen tells you in this article.
Linking to other content within your Parish Web site will help keep your
visitors on your site for longer periods of time. Keep in mind, though, that most people
appreciate being pointed to other valuable sites. If you make a practice of including
these types of links, you will build a reputation of being more than just a good Web site.
You will build a reputation as an excellent information guide.
<back><next>
|
