Reading #2

Read chapters 6-8 in "Don't Make Me Think":

Chapter 6: Street Signs and Breadcrumbs
Designing Navigation
Web Navigation 101:
Similar to the process of searching for something in a store; when you enter a website

• you're usually trying to find something
• you decide whether to ask first or browse first (the web equivalent of asking is searching)
• if you choose to browse, you make your way through a hierarchy, using signs to guide you
• eventually, if you can't find what you're looking for, you'll leave

About Browsing:

• compared to a store, there is no sense of scale of the website
• there is no sense of direction
• there is no sense of location

The (overlooked) purposes of navigation:
Navigation isn't just a feature of a website; it is the website. The purposes of navigation are:

• to help us find whatever it is we're looking for
• to tell us where we are
• to give us something to hold on to
• to tell us what's there, revealing content
• to tell us how to use the site
• to give us confidence in the people who built it and create a good impression

Persistent navigation (or global navigation) describes the set of 5 navigation elements that (need to) appear on every page of a site:

1. Site ID- needs to be on every page
2. Sections- primary navigation that links us to the main sections of the site; subsections are the secondary
navigation
3. Utilities- links to important elements of the site that aren't really part of the content hierarchy
4. A way home
5. A way to search