There are numerous ways by which a person may choose to navigate your website. Based on data we’ve collected, we’ve found that many users will simply search Google for the specific keyword they are looking for. In this scenario, the user may enter your site from any number of pages, not necessarily your home or “index” page.
While this is the case, having an intuitive page navigation menu is still an important option for people wanting to browse your website. Creating a navigation menu that is easy to scan and understand will help your web user find the content they’re looking for with minimal frustration.
Name navigation links appropriately
A well-named navigation link will be both concise and descriptive. Creating a link that is too long will make it harder for people to visually scan your navigation. If the link is not descriptive, however, they may have to click on several links before finding the content they want, creating a frustrating user experience.
Please note: The “Display Name” field populates the navigation link title.
Choose an order that makes sense for your users
There are several ways to order your page navigation. The best method may depend on the content of your site, the habits of your typical user, or the number of pages contained on your site.
For a site where certain pages are clearly more important to your web users than others, it may make sense to order the menu items by page importance.
For a site with a very large number of pages, ordering your pages alphabetically would likely be the most user-friendly method.
No matter how you choose to order your navigation, remember that the order should be representative of the priorities of your web user, not the content editor.
To learn how to order/reorder your page navigation, view Ordering the Right-Hand Site Navigation in the wiki documentation.
The content of this blog entry was accurate at the time of publication. You can find the most current information about navigation menus and other Cascade-related topics in our Cascade wiki documentation.
Up next:
- Writing good copy for the web
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- Wednesday, February 19 @ 10 a.m.