Web design and SEO – Blog

When designing and building a site, you have many things to think about. One basic thing is good navigation.

A big mistake is not to pay enought attention to the navigation. Do not neglect it, because navigation is what will surely be used often by your visitors (unless you have only one page).

Bad location or bad structure of the menu can lead both to a high bounce rate, and a very low feasibility of the objectives of the website. If the navigation is confusing or too complicated to use or find – the site will surely lose many visitors. Do not think that users of your site come with the idea to sit and learn your site. They come with a clear purpose, which can be accomplished very easily in another site, so you must do everything possible to keep them.

When designing the navigation of a site, I recommend to aim for simplicity. Actually, this applies not only to that, but for the entire web design and actually for the design of everything. Really good rule is: every part of the navigation to be visible at any time. For example do not use drop-down menus and other effects that obscure and discover new submenus and other links.

I would advise to use brighter colors for navigation, because it still is an important part of the site. Also do not hide it in some hidden place, let it be visible and easy to find.

While interacting with the navigation of the site, the user shoud not be surprised. He must always know what will happen if he clicks somewhere. To make it clear I will give this example: to put arrows pointing down, if there is a drop-down menu, or to put magnifier image on links that enlarge photos.

I want to finish my post with another advice: stick to the standard. When talking about site navigation it is better to stick to things the user already knows and is accustomed with. These things are sealed in his mind and help him to use your site easier, convenient and enjoyable. I am talking about things such as: the links are underlined, the menu is on the left, when hovering something that can be clicked – the cursor changes to a hand, and others.