Navigation - The Elements of Web Page Style

Navigation Integration

Ease of navigation in your site is essential. Think about your visitors. Will they know intuitively how to reach the information they're looking for?

Devise a logical scheme of how your site will link together. When planning larger sites, drawing up a "storyboard" can help. On a piece of paper, graphically represent each page in your site and draw lines between them to show what will link to what.

“Click Here”

Using the words "click here" for links is often superfluous. Here's an example:

The results of the study were very interesting. Click here to see them.

Notice how difficult it is to tell where you're going to end up by clicking "here?"

Instead, place your links in the context of the text, with the highlighted text representing where the link is leading. Here's an example:

The results of the study were very interesting.

The object is clearer, and it took fewer words!

Link to Home

Every page in your site should include a link back to your main page, or even a link to each of your other pages or main sections.

Standardization

Standardize your navigational links so people will recognize them. You could even put the same basic links on every page.

Text Links

Using graphics for links is fine, but always make sure to put text links on your page as an alternative, especially when using image maps.

Introduction | Content | Color | Layout | Navigation

Graphics | Frames | Maintenance | Links

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