An effective navigation design is crucial for a website. Without navigation, a site loses all sense of structure and organisation. Navigation is the way to guide readers through a website, so that they know how much content is available and where to find what they are looking for.
Simplicity is crucial for website navigation. Navigation can be presented in many ways, from side bars to menus in the header or footer or in a fixed frame that stays present anywhere in a website, but the key of an effective navigation of a website is its structure and organization. The importance of a structured hierarchy is directly proportional to the amount of content of the website.
People quickly leave the websites they cannot navigate. The best way to make a site easy to navigate is to put things where users would expect them to be positioned. Users should be able to go to any page in a maximum of two or three clicks, with the main site pages accessible in one. Too many links can overwhelm readers. Links in a website must be relevant, this makes the readers most likely to click on them. Navigation must be accessible from any page of the website, understandable, clear and intuitive. Navigation design must be consistent through a website, not change from page to page, and remind users where they are. The most popular sites are the ones that don't force the user to figure out how they work and present their subject areas in the most logical way.
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