Navigation is crucial to the users experience on your website. Whilst Content is King, if they can’t find the content easily it becomes the Joker.
Navigation is crucial so it needs to be simple and predictable. Don’t expect your visitors to use the tenacity of Indiana Jones to hunt down your content. People have limited attention spans when searching the web so anything more than three clicks away will be lost. But more importantly it has to be logically categorised.
If you have a lot of content or a shopping cart on your website then categorise your content so it’s easy to find into Crucial Categories and Optional Categories. If your navigation is complicated then explain it using Labels, Pictures and Descriptions or all three.
People expect to find things in curtain places on a web page. Put them there. Don’t make them search or they’ll leave.
8 crucial things to do before launching your website.
Before you start to build a website make sure you have addressed the following:
- Branding & Visual Identity – Logo and brand vision
- Website Strategy – what’s you websites message, website structure, and marketing plan.
- What is your websites purpose?
- Do you know the problem your product/service is solving and for whom?
- Call to Actions – Do you have well thought out “Call to Actions” on your website.
- Website Content – Gathering content for your website. Do you need a copywriter?
- Mobile Version – Do you need a mobile version of your website? (the answer should be yes)
- Website Promotions – Email Campaigns, Introductory Videos, SEO, Google Analytics.