Ok. You want a web site, and you want it to be organized and easy to browse. After all, you’re probably hoping to make money from the site so it better work well, right?
Once you’ve chosen your web design firm - Simply Creative Web Design, of course - then it’s time for some planning to make sure that your site is organized well from the beginning. Grab a pen and paper, and begin to make a list of the pages of information that you want on your web site. Some common one’s, depending of course on the type of site you are wanting, include: About Us, Services, Pricing, Examples, Frequently Asked Questions, Contact Us, etc… Since it’s your site, and you’re the expert when it comes to your business, you tell us what you want on your pages and we’ll shape it around you.
Once you’ve gotten a good listing, being to draw out a site map. Try doing something like this to organize your thoughts, just like you would when writing that big term paper in college.
This will help you to begin to see how people will navigate through your site. There are two common ways of doing navigation through web sites. Let’s explore…
1-Non-Linear Information Flow
This is what is mapped out above. Information flows in a non-linear way. People can pick and choose which links they click on and from there they can begin to gather more information based on what they want to know about. This is the most common way that sites are typically laid out on the internet today. When doing this, it’s important to make sure that you don’t bury any information too “deep” in your site. This happens when you put important information more than three clicks away from your homepage. This is a general design no-no. Make all your information accessible from the front page of your site within three link clicks or people will stop looking. This may mean that you need to make more main heading links on the front page in order to better divide up your content.
2-Linear Information Flow
In this navigation process, you direct the flow that users take to navigate your site. It allows you to walk them through a step by step process of information as you want them to read it. While this works well in directing your viewers, it can also cause people to give up easily and leave your site if they’re not able to immediately find the information that they’re looking for. If you choose to design your site navigation in this way, it is good to also provide alternative short cut links to specefic information on your homepage or in your footer links. This will help satisfy those ADD browsers (Like Me) who want information fast and readily accessible.
No matter how you decide you’d like your site navigation to flow, make sure that it’s simple for the user. We both know that there’s nothing more frustrating than a poorly navigated site. Keep your clients happy - make it easy to get the information needed from your site by making the navigation of your information flow simple!