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One of the most common places that I have found most website designs go wrong is in its navigation. Most of the time, I observe that only a little tweaking is required to cause a dramatic change in the number of visitors who get to see what they are searching for.
Over the years, I have been able to come up with a list of some of the most common mistakes that are seen in website navigation. The solution to most of them can be easily done once identified.
1. Being too clever
This is one major mistake that I have seen to put most site visitors off. Imagine going to a library, and each section of the library are labelled with some weird things you are new to. If there is a nearby option, the most likely thing to do will be to waste no further time and dive in there. Being on the web sure means that there is always an alternative just a click away.
Stop making up “clever” names for things that have a conventional name that everyone is used to. You might want to think that it sounds creative, but what is the point when it puts people away from your website?
2. Several choices
When your website is loaded with a lot of content, and when your site has evolved over-time, it is very much easy for your website to end up with a lot of items in its main navigation. This will make things difficult for the visitors as they find it hard deciding on the crucial information.
It is crucial for you to identify your top goals for the site as well as the top tasks that your visitors like to perform. All other things should be removed, and top-level navigation is kept to not more than six items. This way, your site visitors don’t get confused.
3. Multiple primary navigation areas
Having an additional row below or above the main navigation is just as bad as having too many navigations. The general rule of thumb that I try to stick to is that the more the navigation on a website, the more overwhelming the site will be and most visitors will find it hard to use.
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Your secondary navigation has to be mainly distinguished from that of the primary if its need arises. The use of tertiary navigation should just be abolished.
4. Complex interaction design
Have you ever come across one of those websites that have flyout menus? The ones that open to the right vertically, from the main nav. Another perfect scenario is when horizontal dropdowns disappear because you removed your cursor from them. I know that the two are quite similar. The two scenes are quite similar, and they share the same drawback which is the difficulty the user faces when trying to hover over it and it disappears again.
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5. Being different for difference sake
There was a time I was having a conversation with an advertising agency that has been involved in the development of several restaurant websites. They kept on bragging about how they came up with the unique way of navigating the site. Some of the navigation were different pictures and you wondering where to click, there are others as well that had rows of a button just down the page.
There was even the use of navigations at the bottom of the page. I just kept wondering how it will feel like going through such websites all the while.
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I will just like to say that while it is just great to be creative, you should only make use of it where it is useful. Have you ever seen a car designer innovating the position of the brake or gas pedal?
Everyone should note that website navigation is an aspect of web design where you are required to be conventional. Employ your creativity in making things look good and work well. But you should not also forget to follow the trendy standard pattern that everyone expects.
Conclusion
With the 5 common mistakes in navigation that I’ve already been listed here, ensure that you employ some fresh eyes to check out your website. You can easily rectify any determined weakness.
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