Producing Effective Menus

When designing a website it is important to try to provide as much visual support and context as possible to help orient users and to minimize the disruptive effects of jumping from one place to another whilst trying to find something.

There are 3 key navigational bits of information things people need to know when they are on an internet page; Where they are, Where they have been and Where they can go.

The following principals should be considered when designing an effective web site navigation.

1. Make the current menu selection clear. Your current selection should act as a "You are here" sign, reminding users of their place in the system.
2. Make the user’s current navigational selection visually ‘non-clickable’.
3. Place the most commonly used, or important items at the top or left of the list.
4. When secondary navigation is required, make it visually associated with and visually subordinate to the relevant parent section.
5. Always display the navigation and always display it consistently.
6. Always display links to a page’s children, siblings, parent and grandparents.
7. Provide redundant links on important sub-homepages.
8. Provide a clear link to the homepage from all pages.
9. Use intuitive labels for your navigational elements.
10. Where possible, stick to 5-9 navigational elements per hierarchy