We have all been to enough websites to know what does and does not work with navigation. There are the standard do’s: have good information scent, keep it consistent, don’t have too few or too many choices, use bread crumbs, etc… In my last blog post , Dropdown Menus Done Right, I talked about how to effectively use drop down menus. Now I want to expand on that and talk about a couple other navigation faux pas I have seen.

Tip # 1: Don’t use navigation as a means of promotion.
I visited a site recently that used its persistent navigation as a form of promotion. This company sells hundred of products. As expected they have a link in the persistent navigation titled “Shop.” But also in the persistent navigation is a link for their most popular product. What is wrong with this? The purpose of the persistent navigation is to allow users to find the information THEY are looking for on the site. The purpose of the homepage is to allow the business to guide users to areas they feel are important.

In order to allow users to find things effectively, it needs to be organized in a clear, straightforward manner. The customer should not wonder why one of the products is in the persistent nav and all the others in the shopping area. Additionally when that product becomes less popular and is placed with all the other products, users should not have to re-learn the website.

Marketing initiatives change frequently. The persistent nav should not change with promotions. Generally a good persistent nav should only change with major changes to the company’s business model.

Tip #2 High School is over, stop trying to be cool.
Before you read Tip #2, you need to first watch the video below. Don’t worry, it’s only a couple minutes and it’s from the onion, so it’s bound to get at least a good chuckle.



When I first saw that video, I thought it was funny because it points out something painfully obvious. As cool, hip, and happnin as Apple is, even they could not get away with a design like this. And they know this, so they wouldn’t even try. Unfortunately, someone else did. This video reminded me of a website a visited recently. http://www.selftitled.ca/ Take a couple minutes and check it out. It’s a perfect example of sacrificing form for function. It looks really cool, but that the only praise I can give. Why did the designer think users would look for the Toyota Yaris at about 300 degrees? Do the colors mean something? To be frank I am not that surprised to see something like this. It looks like it a developers/designers portfolio site. The purpose of the site is to demonstrate how cool he is.

I work in the MLM industry and have heard time after time that Xango has a really cool site. I have to agree, it is cool. But it’s not usable. If I want to win awards, I would err on the side of cool. If I want to make money, I would err on the side of usable. Which Xango has recently done. Check out their new site here. I think they must have learned the hard way.

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