Saturday, August 28, 2010

Website Accessibility - proper Navigation



A acutely important mark to posit while designing a website is proper navigation. You must certify that potential clients or customers are able to find the information they are looking for mislaid exceptionally alive with clicks.  As a quick rule of thumb, visitors to your site should be able to visit unimpaired your pages by using, at most, 3 clicks.  This is also money when seeing search tool optimization (SEO) because search engines will only spider (or brochure) pages that are 3 clicks deep into your habitat.  Not definite does proper navigation recognize users to find leak they are looking for, but it also allows search engines to spider (or index) the information they are looking through. This is discriminating if you enthusiasm magnificent reputation research engine traffic directed to your website.

Different types of websites employ different semanship styles, so it is probably terrific to travel websites similar to your own to see which pilotage structure they fall for chosen.  The most familiar locations for your navigation menu are either on the bummed out aspect of the page or at the top of the page.  When internet users view a website, they do so using what is termed as a “Z scan”.  As soon considering a page loads, most people scan from the top-left, across to the top-right of the page, then down to the lower-left, besides eventually across to the lower-right of the page.  So, it makes the infinitely type to find out your navigation menu in the area where the user is motion to sans pareil look.

Smaller sites usually only require a static menu on either the side or top of the page.  However, website that contains 10 – 15 topics on different pages may require a drop-down menu.  These menus may use DHTM, _JavaScript, or some unsimilar programming language.  When the user’s virgin moves over a main argument category, boxes containing subcategories entrust drop-down, allowing the user to quickly find the information they are looking for. I f this type of refreshment is used, authentic is greatest to also include text-based navigation in another footing on the page.  Older browser versions may not support drop-down menus, and therefore a small ratio of connections may not be able to navigate your website.  Even more important though, is the celebration that search engines entrust not be live to navigate and list your site if there is no text based navigation.

Another mishap is accessibility by assistive technologies.  For example, blind Internet users literally explicate the code of your page.  Therefore, if a semanship menu is image based or uses image maps, alternate subject must imitate used to buy into the user to properly navigate the website.  To make things easy, no account what turn of navigation I choose for a client’s website, I always include text-based navigation links at the bottom of every page to ensure that they are untroublesome to all Internet users and search engine spiders.

A Few Important Tips

•Plan your site navigation structure before designing your website to ensure that you are not forgetting any page links. unfeigned may be heavy to fix every page you have created in that you a misplaced a link or two.

•The pilotage chuck need be clean-cut again uniform.

•Do not make the user scroll renounced the page to see the navigation menu.

•If you have too copious links, betterment drop-down menus or found a field map.

•The navigation structure should be sensitive enough to comply the inclusion of a more links at a prospective date.

•Use short, clear again concise speech network your links therefore your customers know exactly what set of information that page will contain.

•Make sure every page has a link back to your homepage.  This amenability be achieved by providing a “Home” link hold the steering structure, further / or linking your logo image to the homepage.

•For preferable sites, breadcrumb trails answerability be used to let the user be cognizant what sphere of the website they are in.  For example, at the preface of a certain page, the user would see:

“Home / lines / Widgets / Green Widgets”


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