Easy, effective navigation is one of the most important elements a web design can have. Unless users can move freely around a site, it is of little use to anyone. So what constitutes a great navigational menu?
There are countless creative ways that web designers can guide users around a website. The best options possess the same positive qualities yet avoid things that reduce function. Web design service can improve your site effectiveness by making the best decisions in planning a navigation menu.
Simple Design
To be most effective, website navigation menus must look simple and be simple to use. They should be easily located within a simplistic web design, break links into as few links as possible, and use an effective hierarchy of category links. Menus must function the way users expect them to. Web designers should try out menus with test audiences to ensure menus are user-friendly and allow users to accomplish browsing goals.
Clear, Concise Wording
Keep all navigational links labeled with text that leaves no question of what can be found under that link with the fewest words possible. Choose a few descriptive words in standard, familiar wording so users understand labels.
Web design services may wish to incorporate small images into the menu links to add understanding if it might better express the message. Avoid using labels that contain longer text phrases that can clutter up menu links and make them harder to understand.
Top or Left Side Positioning
A key factor in effective navigation menu design is good positioning. The two most effective places to position menus in any web design are either across the top of the page or down the left side of the page because most users visiting a site will look there first when searching for navigational links.
Understanding these and other patters of user behavior is important for web designers when trying to create effective, functional websites that can be easily interpreted and used by visitors. Avoid using right side menus or right justified text in any menu since this goes against the long-developed top left to bottom right reading patterns of most people.
Visual Menus
Another option for a creative, simple navigation menu is using images or graphics. Because people respond faster to images than they do to lists of text links, web design services working with mobile-friendly, minimalistic responsive designs see improved function with menus that contain easy to understand images as category headings. This allows for greater creative freedom when designing attractive websites that are user-friendly and easily understood navigation.
Simple, clear, easy-to-understand navigation menus provide the base functionality of every web design. When you want to create a functional, effective website, web design services must first consider how site visitors expect to use the menu. This will help you develop one that is useful for that audience.
Great navigation menus, whether text or image based, prevent user confusion and enable web designers to get great results from the overall website design!