FAO Web guide: 5.2b Define navigation

Web Guide home 1. Introduction 2. Web publishing basics 3. Planning 4. Content collection 5. Design 6. Construction 7. Testing 8. Launch 9. Maintenance 10. Writing for the Web Resources 1.1 FAO and the Internet: What is an FAO Web site? 1.2 Quality criteria of Web sites 1.3 An introduction to Web accessibility at FAO 1.4 Electronic publishing at FAO 2.1 Content quality 2.2 Roles in Web publishing 2.3 Web site quality clearance and continuity 2.4 Policy and legal matters 2.5 Language coverage policy 2.6 Web site traffic monitoring 2.7 Static and dynamic content 2.8 Really Simple Syndication (RSS) 2.9 Social Media Guidelines 2.10 Current server structure at FAO 3.1 What and (who) is the site for and what is it about?3.2 Define the Web site subject scope 3.3 Define your audience 3.4 Identify resources 3.5 How to track and share planning decisions 4.1 Developing a content inventory 4.2 FAO content repositories 4.3 Metadata 5.1 Review user needs 5.2 Defining information architecture 5.3 Prepare interface design 5.4 Define technical implementation 5.5 Tracking design implementation 6.1 Management of files/naming 6.2 HTML and coding 6.3 Use of style sheets 6.4 Graphics 6.5 Conversion of electronic documents 6.6 Language encoding 6.7 Link management 6.8 Printable pages 6.9 Providing access to search 6.10 Domains, URLs and aliases 6.11 Tools 7.1 Testing approaches 7.2 How to use the test environment 8.1 Launch checklist 8.2 Promotion 9.1 Quality assurance and routine checking 9.2 Update procedures for Web sites 9.3 Web usage analysis 9.4 Evaluation of Web sites 10.1 Writing a page of text 10.2 Organizing your text on the page 10.3 How to optimize content for search engines 10.4 How to write feedback, error messages 10.5 Quotations 10.6 Non-discriminatory language Checklists Acronyms Newsletter Guidelines Policies Procedures Web resources Tag cloud Contacts 2.3a Data ownership 2.3b Regulation of access to servers 2.3c Clearance of Web sites by OCP 2.4a Country names, flags and maps 2.4b The fao.org domain, subdomains and root directories 2.4c Use of FAO emblem and logos 2.4d Politically sensitive material 2.6a FAO Web sites: the user perspective 2.6b How to gather user information: user research 2.6c Designing for the user 2.6d Page size and downloading 2.7a Static content 2.7b Dynamic content 2.7c Content Management Systems (CMS) 2.9a FAO and Facebook 2.9b FAO and Flickr 2.9c FAO and Google+2.9d FAO and LinkedIn 2.9e FAO and SlideShare 2.9f FAO and Twitter 2.9g FAO and Wikipedia 2.9h FAO and YouTube 4.3a What is metadata?4.3b Why embed metadata in Web pages?4.3c How to embed basic metadata in the HTML head section 4.3d How to create or improve current metadata 4.3e FAO standards for encoded metadata 4.3f Metadata, search engines and their robots 5.2a Identify Web pages and subject categories 5.2b Define navigation 5.2c Define metadata and search requirements 5.3a Corporate visual identity 5.3b Web site design usability principles 6.1a How to use the FTP server 6.2a HTML and XHTML 6.2b Browser compatibility 6.2c New windows and pop-ups 6.2d JavaScript 6.2e HTML title and metadata tags 6.3a CSS and Web accessibility 6.3b Cascading Style sheets (CSS) and browser compatibility 6.4a Graphic formats 6.4b Use of images on the Web 6.4c Photos 6.5a Converting Word documents into PDF 6.6a Guidelines for language encoding 6.6b Multilingual interfaces 6.7a Linking files across languages 6.7b Links to the FAO home page, FAO copyright and AskFAO 6.7c Absolute and relative links 6.7d Avoid spamming on e-mail addresses 6.8a How to prepare print-safe Web pages using CSS 6.8b Other ways of preparing print-safe Web pages 6.11a Recommended editing tools for Web site construction 6.11b Graphics, document and conversion tools 9.1a Maintaining quality 9.1b Content freshness
	Web Guide > webguide > 5. Design > 5.2 Defining information architecture > 5.2b Define navigation
	5.2b Define navigation Guideline It is important that your site is easy to navigate. Consistency and predictability are the key. A user should be able to drill down for information and find their way back through the levels easily and intuitively. Disorientating your users is guaranteed to send them away from your site. Checklist... Navigation Are the deepest levels of information available within 2-3 mouse clicks from the home page? Can you drill down through the site and find your way back to the original page easily? Do you have breadcrumbs? This navigational technique displays the hierarchy of all the Web pages leading from the home page to the currently viewed page. The pages are linked for easy backwards navigation. Does each page behave in the same way? If not, is there a good reason for that? Think: Where am I? Where have I been? Where can I go next? Where is the home page? Page layout Page layout (i.e. how the contents of a Web page are arranged) is a key aspect of the user's navigational experience. Ideally, the structure of a Web page should not change dramatically as users click around the Web site: what happened on one page should happen in the same way on other pages. Consistency is one of the main defining principles for a successful Web site. If you click around FAO's Web sites, you will note that the page layout of most sites is based on a design that has the area beneath the banner split into two or three columns. Each column should have a specific role and that role should be consistent. Left column: the left column is normally reserved for navigation of the internal pages of the Web site and normally lists Web pages in a menu style. Clicking on a Web page usually changes the information in the central column. Try to avoid using the left column to list links to external documents, other Web sites or additional information that is not part of the main Web site. Use the central or right-hand column to list this type of information. Central column: the central column normally contains text and in some cases additional materials such as photos, links etc. Try to avoid stuffing the text with too many hyperlinks as this can become disorientating for users. Right column: the right column is commonly used to list additional information that supports the written content of the central column. See example below: Navigation schemes FAO Web sites use a range of navigation schemes. Menus listing are displayed in a number of ways depending on the system being used and the type of information being displayed. There are currently two principle navigation schemes: top-tab menu navigation; and side-menu navigation. Remember... Keep it consistent! The navigation system should be in the same place on every page and have the same format. Visitors will become confused and frustrated if links and menus appear and disappear unpredictably. Top tab menu At FAO there are numerous Web sites that use top tab menu navigation as the principal method for moving around the Web site. Clicking on one of the top tabs or content categories, takes the user to a new menu. Examples: Side-menu navigation Side-menu navigation has traditionally been used on the Web since the Internet first became popular a decade ago. This type of site navigation is used throughout FAO.