6 Amazing Tips for Website Navigation Design Every Beginner Should Know
Crafting a clear and intuitive navigation system is one of the most crucial aspects of web design. Unfortunately, so many get it wrong. This leads to visitors getting lost, disinterested, and confused.
They’ll leave before they can finish a transaction or subscribe to your newsletter. That’s bad for business!
Uncertain about your site’s navigation design? We’ve got several tips below to help you get it right. Read on to discover more.
1. Have a Plan
How will visitors reach product pages? How many clicks will it take for them to reach the end of a check-out procedure if they’re at the homepage? How many options will people find from your site’s main menu?
Draw a diagram and plan your navigation design. List down all the important web design elements you want to prioritize too.
You should be able to trace how people can reach every page, starting from the homepage. This can help you count how many clicks it takes to find your contact information, for example, or if there are too many hurdles to reach your product pages.
2. Prioritize Primary Pages
List down your primary pages because those should help funnel visitors to important corners of your site. For example, menu items labeled “shop” and “about” should lead people to your products and contact details, respectively. Both of these endpoints can lead to visitors purchasing, subscribing, or getting in touch with you.
3. Stick With User-Friendly Language
Stick with language that makes sense to visitors. “Marketplace” doesn’t mean anything to most users. Replace it with something they can identify, such as “store” or “shop.”
If you’re not sure about the language you used, don’t hesitate to run a few tests. Conduct a simple A/B split test with several people to check which terms on your menus and links make more sense.
4. Logo Leads to Home Page
While this might sound like common sense, you may find the occasional website that fails to implement this basic site navigation tactic. Don’t forget to turn your logo, the one always visible on the menu, into a link! Clicking on the logo should bring people back to the homepage.
Why is this important?
No matter how well-designed your site is, there will always be visitors who might get confused or lost. Keeping your logo as a link to the homepage is a safety net, giving people a way back to a familiar page.
5. Plan for Mobile Users Too
Yes, platforms like WordPress automatically feature a responsive web design but don’t settle for the free work. You have to conduct some manual designing too.
For one thing, make sure you add the word “menu” close to the menu icon that appears for mobile users. It’s the icon comprised of three horizontal lines.
Plan your color scheme, typeface, and menu buttons too. Make sure they’re all comprehensible when viewed on a tiny touchscreen.
6. Any Page From Every Page
This is one of the most important navigation tips to keep in mind! Regardless of which page or post people are at, they should be able to get somewhere else with as few clicks as possible.
Are they on a specific blog post from two months ago? From that post, they should at least be able to get to your primary pages and several secondary pages too.
Perfect Your Navigation Design Today!
Perfecting your navigation design isn’t a simple or quick task. Fortunately, you don’t have to go in blindly. Use these 6 steps to get a firm foot forward and start working on a user-friendly navigation layout.
That said, navigation isn’t the end of designing your site. For more helpful guides, make sure you read our other articles here. Check out similar content to get the help you need!