Understanding Website Navigation Components
Written by Audee Mirza Graphic designer & WordPress developer
August 19, 2022
Website Tips
On the internet, users search for information from one website to another and from one web page to another page. In the pursuit of getting the right information, users are comparing that information, checking links, pictures, or videos, and sometimes even submitting a completed contact form.
But how exactly do they finally find the information that they are looking for? Thanks for the website navigation that makes this searching process faster and makes the user experience.
What is Website Navigation?
A website may consist of a wide range of content or topics. Web navigation is a system that allows web visitors to navigate the entire web content. The navigation system works according to the information inside the web pages.
The system consists of several web navigation components to be able to flawlessly access the web pages that contain structures of information. This information can be in the form of copywriting, pictures, photo galleries, forms, a list of blog posts, search results, a range of data, and many more.
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Tips to Design Web Navigation
The web navigation system is a broad topic to discuss as there are so many types of web navigation components and elements used by today’s websites. Not to mention the so many different ways to design web navigation, so let’s start by going step by step with some tips to create it first.
1. UX/ UI
Well-designed web navigation will provide:
a. Good Readability By choosing a simple font style, and measuring the right font size and weight in a layout.
b. Simplicity By using minimal color, simple background shape, and simple icon shape, with decluttered composition.
c. Visual Feedback To use different states on hover, on click, or currently visited.
d. The right icon or pictorial mark denotes a clear symbol path or direction.
2. Easy to Locate
Choose the right section in the layout where the web navigation is easy to locate by web visitors or users.
Should be good to display on any screen, by providing:
Retina display options for icons
Different font sizes for every screen
Responsiveness for the rest of the navigation design elements
4. Stay Relevant
The same level of information deserves the same attention from the web visitors, so it’s important to group relevant navigation in one area so users can compare and then decide which one to click or to go with the next information.
For instance, shopping icons are often grouped at the top right of a page layout, next to the main navigation.
5. Present Organized or Structured Navigation
Correlation
How one page can lead to another sub-page based on the same scope of the main category, should be based on an exact correlation. For instance, the main navigation that includes a ‘Blog’ category link, would normally have sub-category blog topics.
The Common Pattern
One example to explain this concept is how users or web visitors often intuitively look for information on the main navigation menu once they land on the homepage of a website. So if they’re lucky, they will find the information they’re looking for. But in fact, there are no strict rules on how those main navigation links should be arranged.
However, most web visitors would understand the typical pattern or the known standard of what types of links are included there. The main navigation, for instance, would normally consist of the following links, which are: Home, About, Features, Pricing, and Contact. Again, this pattern is flexible for each website.
Good Hierarchy
Hierarchy of information is one of the important elements in web navigation, A good structure of web navigation will help a user easy to go back and forth using links as needed to find the right information. This hierarchy structure can be found in the breadcrumb navigation component.
6. Design Consistency
Design consistency in web navigation will give a sense of familiarity with the whole design theme. This can be achieved by using similar color tones and styles for the navigation element.
The Web Navigation Components
There are various web navigation components and each of them has a different function depending on the content types to navigate. In this section, the types of web navigation will be explained better using examples.
Types of Web Navigation Components
1. Direct link navigation components
Site menu navigation is used to show direct links to the main pages of a website. There are many types of menu navigation, and they are:
Breadcrumb, pagination, and tags are used to navigate website content that has the structure of information or a specific hierarchy of information.
Icons and a website logo are categorized as visual navigation that replaces text links with symbols or pictograms.
Back to the top button will help to scroll back to the top of a layout page with a single click, especially in the lengthy page content.
Navigation for image sliders & carousels commonly uses right-left arrow shapes and bullet controls to make easy-to-navigate pictures.
Slider for numeric range value is tool navigation that helps to input numeric value in price range, distance range, or any data filter that requires numeric range value for the input data.
Web Navigation Design Examples
This type of menu is the most common use on many websites, which ensures accessibility for every web visitor. It also gives more space at the top area of a website such as a header or a hero section.
Sometimes it’s creatively shown rotated orientation text or just a simple one-column sidebar menu stacked on the left or right side of a web page. The sidebar menu is easier to scale especially for a website that has many menu links and structured information.
