Webpages link them all or?

[webing]

Hi, i'm going to be making some webpages that will not contain alot of text but there will be quite a few of them so i was wondering should i make a navigation menu link for each of them? as that would totally make a big navigation menu sooner or later but still i think that each page should be on it's own.

so any views on that, link each page or not? there will be around 30 pages all together i would think (when i finish all) it's not that much but wouldn't it make the navigation a bit too long?

Thanks.

[Receptional Andy]

Hi webing,

It's an interesting question, since planning navigation is something many sites overlook, and live to regret! Information hierarchy is a complex topic, more so in the context of a site that is growing, and perhaps also changing along the way.

Some questions that may help you make your decision:

Is this a static collection of pages? Is it likely to always be 30 pages? If it is, then a complex hierarchy is likely to be overkill.

Similarly, how important are these pages in the context of the site overall? If this is a very niche collection of information, and is unlikely to expand, then it may not warrant a navigation system of its own at all, but could simply be linked from a single page which is part of an overarching category of information.

[ergophobe]

How tightly related are they? Having a link from every page to every page seems likely to decrease the number of pages people read (too many choices, can't find what I want, so I go back to google and search again).

Are they all peer pages, or is there some sort of logical hieararchy?

Look at it this way - how often to you page through to the fourth page of google results? Because that's "around 30" links (31-40 at default).

One option is
- a few parent/gateway pages
- child pages with secondary (i.e. indented navigation)
- related pages sidebar for each child page that allows for lateral navigation
- best of all, links in the text.

Also, you could consider something like the drupal book module if the pages fit a chapter/subchapter model which works sort of like a help file (has next, previous, "up a level" and "index" navigation, as well as all children when viewing a parent page).

[webing]

Thanks for the answers, sorry for the late reply, totally forgot about this topic, i figure i will just put them all in the main menu until they start to look ugly and then use some of the ideas in here, thanks again.

[rocknbil]

How many? How deep? Too many, too little?

tedster's thoughts on Information Architecture [webmasterworld.com] will be extremely helpful! :-)

[purplesoda]

Hi, i'm going to be making some webpages that will not contain alot of text but there will be quite a few of them so i was wondering should i make a navigation menu link for each of them?

they will not contain a lot of text? so what are its contents?