As part of helping your user navigate your site’s content, consider implementing breadcrumbs to compliment your primary navigation. Breadcrumbs are a series of links that show the hierarchical path to the current page a user is on and usually follows the convention of Parent > Child > … > Current Page. If you’re running a site that hosts many different pages that are categorized or organized in some kind of multilevel hierarchy, breadcrumbs will come in handy for the following reasons:
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- It helps the user easily identify where they are in the site.
- It requires less clicks to return to a parent page.
- It can attract users to browse other areas of the site if they’ve entered the site through a child page.
- Ideally, breadcrumbs should be used on sites with 3 or more levels (i.e. an ecommerce site).
- Breadcrumbs should be in the top half of the site, but below the primary navigation (if it is horizontal).
- Breadcrumbs are most commonly horizontal and ordered left to right.
- Typically, ‘>’ is used to separate links in a breadcrumb, but anything that implies the parent-child relationship can work.
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Source: Breadcrumbs in Web Design: Examples and Best Practices (Smashing Magazine)
Pagination is found all over the web – from blogs to galleries to directories – and choosing the right style of pagination to use has important implications for how your users sort through your pool of information. Most opt to go with the most common convention of using numbers (Page 1, 2, 3). However, consider how annoying page numbers can be for somebody sorting through a directory of people. On which page do people starting with the letter ‘k’ begin?
Pathway pages are pages on your site that provides links and information about a collection of individual items (be they articles, products, pictures, etc). Pathway pages usually represent a category or group of items. For example, clicking Patio Furniture on a furniture website’s navigation will bring you to a pathway page that shows all the various types of patio furniture available. From this collection, a user will choose one to explore.
Websites come in many shapes, forms, designs, colours and layouts. But nearly every site has a common set of elements that subconsciously help the user to identify where they are, what they’re looking for, how to find it, and what to do next. Before you go any further, run your sites through this checklist to make sure you have all the basic elements: a site ID, a page name, a clear navigation, an option to search, an indication of the user’s current location, a tagline or site description, and a sense of the site’s page hierarchy.
Avoid some of the most common usability pitfalls by ensuring that you: