10e20 Blog

Where should you put your site navigation? The Internet can be a powerful tool for just about anyone but it can also be a cumbersome experience. Your site can have the stickiest content on the web but if your visitors don’t know how to access that content, they’ll just get lost or more likely move on.

Navigation encompasses the range of ways a user may move around a specific web site and the tools designers offer to help them do that in the easiest, most user friendly way. Navigation is about communicating with the user.

The web is currently torn between two opposing forces. One being usability and interface design that argues for clarity, simplicity and consistency. On the other hand new web standards and technologies are allowing for the proverbial envelope to be pushed a bit further and create something fresh. Designers are looking elsewhere for inspiration and throwing new ideas into the mix. It seems to be a trade off, or balancing act, of clarity and coherence and not being to boring or sterile.

Here are some samples of popular sites and what they are doing with navigation. I faded out the content area and shaded the navigational areas green to emphasize the locations.

Wikipedia

Gap

flickr

A List Apart

The most common navigation resides either on the top of a site or on the left hand side- you have seen this on countless sites. It works so well because it is so widely used or is it so widely used because it works so well?! Or could it be better?

That’s why we want you to add your two cents. When you have a moment please join our poll on what you think the best location for a sites navigation to be. Thanks!