Navigating Web Sites

Page layout can help your audience to navigate your site.

• Put your most important information in the upper-left corner.
• Put navigational buttons, or related links, near one another (spatial proximity).
• Show the users where they are, and where they've been.
  • Use link colors to show where they've been, and where they haven't been.
  • Do NOT include a link to the current web page.
  • It's helpful to indicate the current location in a hierarchy (bread crumbs) or site map.

Colors and graphics can help (or hinder) navigation

• Icons can make it easier - or harder - to find the options one needs.
• Text is more descriptive, but you must pay attention to style.
• Color is the most relative medium of all.
  • Simultaneous contrast changes the way we perceive colors
  • Optical illusions demonstrate a need for balance
  • Play around with color!

Inconsistency is confusing!