Navigation: More than Common Sense

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Navigation More than Common Sense

• Valerie Gomez de la Torre
• Information Architecture Design I
• INF 384C
• October 26, 2004

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Overview of presentation

• IAs , Common Sense Velma
• Users have questions
• Types of navigation systems menus

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IAs ,Common Sense Velma

• Role of IAs
• User advocate
• Focus on users needs, goals and behaviors when
  designing a navigation system
• Focus on the differences between users
• seeking behaviors
• experience levels
• Design is not decoration, it is communication
  Wodtke, 2003, p.204

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Users want to know

• Where am I?
• Where are the things I am looking for?
• How do I get to what I am looking for?
• Wodtke, 2003, p.34

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1. Where am I?

• Well placed logos and up-front value propositions

• Obvious placement of navigation systems

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2. Where are the things I am looking for?

• Global navigation systems
• Local navigation systems
• Contextual navigation systems
• Supplemental navigation systems

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Global navigation systems

• Most commonly located on the top of all pages of
  a web site
• links to important content, major categories, and
  search tools.
• Also can be located on the bottom of page
• less commonly accessed areas linking to privacy
  policy, contact information, etc.

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Global navigation systems
Tab Menu
Horizontal Menu
Bottom Menu
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Local navigation systems

• Local navigation systems complement the global
  system by allowing users to explore the immediate
  area and its list of available categories
• User behaviors
• Pogosticking
• Crabwalking
• Rosenfeld Morville, 2002, p.114

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Local navigation systems
Cascading Menu
Sidebar
Fly-out Menu
Drop-down Menu
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Contextual navigation systems

• Embedded or in line hypertext links
• Associative links

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Supplemental navigation systems

• Search
• Sitemaps
• Indexes
• Guides
• Breadcrumbs
• Pagination

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Supplemental navigation examples
Search
Site Map
Pagination
Site Index
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Supplemental system examples

• Breadcrumbs
• Location
• Path
• Attribute

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3. How do I get to what I am looking for?

• Links should look clickable
• Transference -expectations about an interfaces
  behavior based on their previous experience with
  other interfaces (Withrow)
• Labeled with clear expectations of what lies
  beneath
• Visual perception
• group links to gain meaning through context
• The Gestalt rule of proximity indicates that
  items closet together are perceived as being
  related/associated. (Withrow)

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Advanced navigation

• Personalization
• website remember users name, credit card info,
  address, etc.
• attempt to guess as to what users want
• Customization
• the user tells the site what she wants
• local weather, scores for favorite teams, etc.
• Rosenfeld Morville, 2002, p. 127

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Conclusion

• When planning and designing a navigation system,
  we cant always anticipate all the paths users
  will take.

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learn more
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Conclusion

• When planning and designing a navigation system
  we cant always anticipate all the paths users
  will take.
• But with user testing, we can come close!
• testing is essential both before designing a
  navigation system and often once the website is
  launched to improve on it

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Resources

• Bernard, Michael, and Chris Hamblin. Software
  Usablity Reseach Lab. 1 May2003. 20 Oct. 2004
  http//psychology.wichita.edu/surl/Default.htm
• Garrett, Jesse James. Digital Web Magazine. 17
  Dec. 2002. Adaptive Path.18 Oct. 2004
  http//www.digital-web.com
• Instone, Keith E. "Location, path and attribute
  breadcrumbs." (n.d.).16 Oct. 2004
  http//www.user-experience.org
• Krug, Steve. (2000). Don't make me think. 1st ed.
  Indianapolis, IN New Riders
• Merholz, Peter. Peterme.com. 12 May 2003. 05 Oct.
  2004lthttp//www.peterme.comgt.
• Nielsen, Jakob. (2000). Designing Web Usability
  The Practice of Simplicity. 1st ed. Indianapolis,
  IN New Riders
• Rosenfeld, L., Morville, P. (2002). Information
  architecture for the World Wide Web. 2nd ed.
  Sebastopol, CA O'Reilly
• van Duyne, D. K., Landay, J. A., Hong, J. I.
  (2003). The design of sites Patterns,
  principles, and processes for crafting a
  customer-centered Web experience. Boston, MA
  Addison-Wesley.
• Withrow, Jason. Boxes and Arrows . 11 Aug. 2003.
  17 Oct. 2004http//www.boxesandarrows.com
• Wodtke, Christina. (2003). Information
  Architecture Blueprints for the Web. ed.
  Indianapolis, IN New Riders