Evaluating Website Navigation and Usability

  1. Show the User's "Crumbs."
  2. Use Meaningful Directory and File names.
  3. Be Consistent in Organizing and Labeling.
  4. Make Your Navigation Scheme Universally Accessible
  5. structure your content. (It will prove difficult to create an effective navigation scheme if your content is poorly organized. Users should be able to easily understand the relationship between pages as they navigate through your site.
  6. Make sure your navigation bars and links are clearly written and inform the user of where they are going. Link titles can help.
  7. Make your navigation scheme consistent throughout the site. If you use a top navigation bar, don't place it along the left side in other pages. Keep it predictable.
  8. With each level of navigation, indicate what page of the site the user is viewing. Headings and other text prompts often do the trick.
  9. For larger sites, include a link to a site map on every page.
  10. Make sure your link text is descriptive. Be careful with the words you choose. Poor choices of words, or inconsistent use of the same words, can be disorienting.
  11. Don't use jargon or technical language for your links, as you might alienate some users.
  12. Make your navigation scheme reflect the structure of your site.
  13. Use consistent language for each link. For example, avoid instances where one link uses "home" and a link on another page uses the company name or "main" as its link to the home page.
  14. Group related links. For example, if you have links that provide information about your organization, such as "About Us", "Our Services", and "Our Clients", it makes sense to group these together under a common heading.
  15. Always include a prominent link to the site map and/or site index, the home page, and other important links.
  16. Depending on the nature of your site, you might want to include a standard search tool on every page of your site. This will provide your users with an easy way to find precisely what they're looking for.
  17. Try not to force users to rely on their browser's Back button to get around your site. Provide navigation back and forth through your pages whenever possible.
  18. If you do change link colors, try to choose colors that work well with the site page's color scheme.
  19. Make sure, no matter what, that all your text links are underlined so they can e immediately identifiable as links.
  20. Try to use fonts that are easy to read. Avoid script fonts or fonts that are so old for their size that the characters "bleed" together.
  21. Wherever appropriate, use link titles to provide more information about the destination of the link.
  22. Consider hover "rollover" style to clearly distinguish links.

 

 

 


UCCS Ingeniux Users' Group List: