bare essentials: navigation structure

Before we begin the information architecture and design of a website we are presented with a sitemap that proposes the type of content that the business owner will have on the site based on the organization’s products and services. The sitemap will be the basis of the website’s navigation structure. The sitemap needs to be recreated using terminology or labels that are user-friendly and easily understood by the target audience. It is vital not to treat the sitemap like an organizational chart, as it will result in a failed navigation structure.

Users often get frustrated if there are too many clicks to get to the information they are looking for, as they have no time or patience to be forced to browse through layers of information they do not necessarily want. Common usability issues amount from hierarchal organization of content within a site. We need to break down the sitemap and group content together that have a logical relation.



There are a few schemes for organizing the content on a site:

1. Alphabetical – in the form of yellow pages, index, or directory listings
2. Geographical – categorized by country, region, or language
3. By Topic – grouped by products, or services
4. By Task – to institute an action or function
5. By Audience – targeting individuals or groups

Once the sitemap is organized the next step is to determine the navigation structure that will be the user's guide to browsing through information on the site. The navigation structure may consist of the following group of links:

1. Global – This group of links remain as constants throughout the site. There are two kinds of global links, the first of which are primary links that factor in the main sections or categories within the site. The labels of these primary links should be short, but descriptive so that users easily understand what each link leads to. There should be no more than 10 links, which lead in to the most important sections of the site. Remaining links that are not as important but considered pieces of information that are ‘nice-to-know’, or corporate and user related content may be included as secondary links found on the topmost part of the page (but not as prominent as the primary links) or the footer.

2. Local – these links can only be found in inside pages, which links to sub-sections of a main category or links to pages that are related to the main category the page sits in.

3. Contextual – These are page level links that are placed within the content, such as hyperlinks and breadcrumbs. It also refers to links, tags or multimedia content directly related to the main content and not necessarily part of the category it sits in as these related items may also read from other categories within the site or from an external source.

4. Supplementary – These are miscellaneous links such as sitemap, legal disclaimer, privacy policy, terms & conditions; also web user tools such as search, site index, guides, print, bookmark, email, customize, etc. that usually constitute an action.