Improving Website Navigation/Usability

Posted by Hans de Ruiter

Regular visitors may have noticed the addition of drop-down menus on the navigation bar above. This was suggested to me by my brother, who correctly pointed out that this would make it easier to navigate this website. Indeed, examining the server logs shows that many visitors are already using it to jump to the sub-section of greatest interest. Previously, they had to click on a section, and then choose the desired sub-section in order to get to what they wanted. Not only do the new menus save time, they also give an instant overview of what the major topics of this website are, thus making it easier for visitors to find what they are looking for. The menus were implemented using the Simple Drop-Down Menu code found on this page.

This highlights the importance of good website design, an area in which I still have much to learn. Possibly the best summary of what makes a good design is given by the book title "Don't Make Me Think" by Steve Krug. Due to the overload of information on the internet and elsewhere, we no longer have the time or desire to examine everything in detail. To quote Steve Krug's book: "We don't read pages. We Scan them." Essentially, everyone is instinctively trying to extract the information that they need in minimal time. Thus, a website is most effective if it makes it easy to find what one is looking for; if too much thinking is required, people are likely to walk away and look elsewhere. 

Small changes can make a big difference to how easy it is to find information. For example, not only does this website now have drop-down menus, but it is instantly apparent due to the triangular down arrows on the navigation bar. It is a standard convention to use these arrows to indicate that a sub-menu is present. Thus, a reader does not need to guess that these menus are available; it is immediately obvious. 

From what I have seen so far, Steve Krug's book looks like a very good resource for anyone designing websites. It is the result of years of studying the behaviour of web-users and contains examples of pages and how users typically scan them. Clear comparisons of intuitive visuals and those that require extra thought or guess work are also provided. This book also comes highly recommended by others. I will be reading through it in depth soon. Anyone else who is interested in reading this book can find it at the following online stores (select the one closest to you):

Available online globally from the following stores:
New Zealand	Buy from thenile.co.nz
Australia	Buy from thenile.com.au
United States of America	Buy from amazon.com
Canada	Buy from amazon.ca
United Kingdom	Buy from amazon.co.uk
France	Achetez chez amazon.fr
Deutschland	Kaufen bei amazon.de

Comments (0) | 4 January 2009