2. Navigation Website Checklist

Navigation is the way visitors find information they want. The easier it is for your visitors to navigate their way around your site the more they will know about you. Navigation is most effective when the visitor has to take as little action as possible to find information. To do this you must understand your market place and use effective navigation aids.

2.1 One Click is Best

Is it possible to get to all the key information on your website within one click ?

The following advice applies if your answer is ’No’:

You should have navigation aids that are displayed on every page to allow the user to navigate to all key information within one click. If they need to click several times to get to the key information then your visitors may not make the effort to find it.

2.2 Guiding your Visitor

Is there a link on the home page that would guide the visitor to the key information about your business ?

The following advice applies if your answer is ’No’:

While your navigation contains links to the rest of your site your home page does not guide the visitor to the information they may be interested in.

Include a description of the area of the site they would be interested in and a link to it on the home page. The description should contain words that will motivate your visitor to look futher.

2.3 Using a Search Facility

If your website has more than 10 pages does it have a ’Search’ facility ?

The following advice applies if your answer is ’No’:

If your website has lots of pages the chances are your visitors will not be able to find the particular thing they are looking for with your navigation aids. A good search facility helps here.

2.4 Search Not Finding Information

Does your search facility (if you have one) find the key information ?

The following advice applies if your answer is ’No’:

If your search facility can not find the most important information then it needs fixing. This may mean changing the information on the pages so they are found or updating the software you are using to search.

2.5 Navigation Aids

Is your search facility (if you have one) accessible from any page ?

The following advice applies if your answer is ’No’:

There are navigation aids missing on a least some of your pages.

If you don’t have navigation aids on every page the user will not be able to find their way around the site. The navigation aids should cover as many pages as practical.

2.6 Navigation Aids on Every Page

Are there navigation aids on every page (i.e. can you navigate to your most important pages from other pages) ?

The following advice applies if your answer is ’No’:

If you don’t have navigation aids on every page the user will not be able to find their way around the site. The navigation aids should cover as many pages as practical.

2.7 Contact Details

Can your contact details be reached within one click (or less) on any page ?

The following advice applies if your answer is ’No’:

You want prospective customers to make contact with you ! Don’t make it hard for them by hiding your contact details on the page. A simple solution is to have a simple ’Contact’ button at the top of the page.

2.8 Slow Pages

While clicking through your site do pages load quickly and at about the same speed ?

The following advice applies if your answer is ’No’:

Your site is slow because of the images or other objects that are being loaded.

The faster your visitor can get from one page to another the more pages they will visit. Loading the page up with images or flash that are large makes the page slow and will cause visitors to loose interest. Use the appropriate compression settings for images and remove any large flash or images that are not useful.

2.9 Using Images for Navigation

Are there images on the screen that are being used as navigation aids that are not obviously navigation aids and no other links to click on ?

The following advice applies if your answer is ’Yes’:

Your website contains images that are being used to link to other pages. Having links on the images is fine except that it may not be obvious to your user that they have to click on the images. Supplementing the image link with an obvious text link will save the visitor from having to scan over the screen with there mouse to find the link.

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