At first
glance, with the exception of example 1, the following menus appear
to be the same, they all do the same job. It is only when you mouse
over them that the differences become apparent.
We will not go
into the actual designs themselves here, as we cover those in other
sections of the site. The basis of a profitable and successful
website relies on how well it navigates. All web navigation must
answer the following questions:
Where are you?
Where have you been?
Where can you
go next
Where's the
Home Page
Navigation
must be simple and consistent.
Common
mistakes include different types of navigation on the same site thus
not recognizable as an actual link, poorly worded links so the visitor
doesn't know where he'll go if he clicks, no links back to the home
page, confusing links to the home page etc.
There are 4
main types of website navigation: (1) HTML
(2) Graphic
Buttons,
(3) Java/JavaScript,
and (4) Macromedia
Flash
or Flash.
HTML
Navigation:
CLICK
HERE TO GO SOMEWHERE
The oldest
form of technology used to navigate on a website, HTML navigation (HyperText
Markup Language) is simply a text link of words that
when clicked on will send the user to another page. While HTML
navigation is not a big user of resources and does not stop a page
from loading up quickly, it is poor in visualization and offers
minimal if any "oomph" to the look of a website. We still
include text links in our websites, usually located at the foot of
each page, this aids viewers who still use older browsers and also
aids the search engines when indexing.
Button
Navigation:
Button
Navigation became more prevalent in the mid to late 1990's. While it
does offer a more "eye appealing" approach to website
design, it has a major drawback. That is the buttons themselves,
these are images and consume a great deal of the computers memory
resources from the viewer visiting that website.
The slower a
web page loads, the more apt the user is to grow bored waiting for
the page. Growing impatient, the viewer will move away from that
website to another quicker one.
Another
disadvantage: The more buttons you need for navigation, the more
website space is taken away from content, i.e. the money making part
of your site. To overcome this, you may not have all the buttons to
your web pages on every page. This would be disastrous as your site
will be confusing to the viewer trying to remember what page had what
buttons to get to a certain page, and therefore violates a
fundamental rule of effective web programming.
Java/JavaScript
Navigation:
Java/JavaScript
is by far the most superior of the four types of website navigation,
especially for companies where their sites have lots of pages or
products. While it can offer eye appealing graphics like Button
Navigation, it is not an image but actually programming code and thus
a saver of resources.
Java
Navigation consists of "drop-down" or "pop-up"
windows. Much like the Table of Contents section of a book, the main
headers are like chapter headings with each of the "pop
out"/"drop down" text representing the sub-sections of
that particular chapter. For more information see our Java section
Macromedia
Flash or Flash
Macromedia
Flash or Flash is a graphics animation program, written and marketed
by Macromedia, that uses vector graphics. The resulting files, called
SWF (pronounced swiff) files, may appear in a web page to view in a
web browser, or standalone Flash players may "play" them.
You will most likely have come across them as flash intros on
websites, usually the ones where you wait ages to load. While the
results can look fantastic the downside is the time it often takes to
load, especially for viewers with dial-up connections. Which is why
we have always tended to keep away from Flash.
The
good news is that we have some new software that greatly reduces the
file sizes but still produces quality results, as you can see from
the examples given at the top of this page Flash example number 4
looks by far the best and after the HTML Text menu is the fastest to
load, as this menu has both animation and sound it's an impressive
file size.
We
have recently replaced this sites Java buttons with Flash created
with this new software. For more information see our Flash section
