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Run some click tracking on your own menu system. People don't use menus. They come to the page they want, and then they go back to root and go from the content (not the menu) on the home page. Navs are used very little anymore - certainly not enough to justify their excessive html weight on every page. A home button would suffice.
In fact, that seals it. My next rebuild of <snip>a site near you</snip> is going to be:
- 1 top location/nav line, (ed: Home / Content Area / Article name)
- 600pixels wide of content area,
- a reprint of the nav bar at the bottom,
- two to four high quality "related" links to like content.
- done
I bet my per user satisfaction rate increases, bandwidth reduces, rankings increase, roi increases by 10%, and user per click rate goes up by atleast 1 click per user.
Whose to blame? Apple, MS, Parc ??? C'mon witchhunt!
(edited by: joshie76 at 5:36 pm (utc) on Mar. 20, 2002)
Thats a pretty bold thing to say without any backup. In fact it makes no sense at all. What ever you're taking pass some along to me ;)
As I mentioned, put a click through counter on your menu's, the rate at which they are used has been falling steadily from what I've seen. From the sites I've looked at, less than 1 in 20 users will use a menu for anything other than the home button. The more complicated and confusing the menu, the less it gets used.
How are you doing this? Some QueryString redirect page like Yahoo use?
Also, how did the results of your analysis show your users where getting around? Through the more traditional mid-content hyperlink (per se) as opposed to menus?
Ya, any old cgi counter redirect will work to count menu clicks. You can also just use the 'follow footsteps' feature of many log analyzers (although most are not optimal).
Home>section2 then section2>home>section3
with a menu
Home>section2 then section2>section3
Its one more click without the menu, I was at a site today and actually got frustratd because I knew where i wanted to go but couldnt get there without doubling back.
I suspect the reduction in menu use is largely due to the fact that Google is now dropping more users on the page that they actually want.
The 'ever present' menu makes more sense if your visitors are all arriving through the front door, but this doesn't happen so much now, they come through lounge window and help themselves to your cigars without even seeing the front door and hallway.
My sites still have menus on every page, but that is largely to satisfy customer expectations.
Sorry 4eyes I don't see the logic there. Navigation isn't just there to get you places it can let you know where you are* in the scheme of things. It can also act as a map to show what else is available. You can make a more informed decision if you can see the bigger picture. Menu's (be they tabs/dropdowns/trees or whatever) are great for this.
*It's a shame this kind of thing isn't done more often - [webmasterworld.com...] discusses a similar thing: menu's linking to themselves instead of showing where you are in bold or something. My hands are up, i'm guilty of this too.
i introduced a column of small html-adverts on the right hand side of a site but included "obvious" signs that they were our own non-spam, *direct* links to related content. the link told users where the link would take them: "house > door > window" as a way of helping to overcome web traits they might be used to (eg, spam nav).
languages that read left to right, place more importance on the left-side. and what is important? the content.
if the content is instructional, then it has the greater importance over additional content or navigation.
left-side navigation came about because that's what the early web sites used - long before it gained a larger audience. Simply those sites were inspiration for others - and the left-side nav stayed. as others have said, you can make a menu look like a menu, and users will easily find it and use it.
i've found the majority of users (for me) use the locator text: "house > door > window" (placed top and bottom of main content) to explore related interests. Or they use the main menu (centre top and bottom) to find out more about the company.
A site where the menu is over complicted is not as good as a nice clear HOME link.
However if the designer is creating nice, clear and simple navigation menus then I don't see how that can be a bad thing.
At the very least you should be offering your users more than one method of navigating the site. Just sticking to one seems rather narrow minded.
it can let you know where you are
I accept 'breadcrumb trails' are very useful.
I just think the old fashioned 'vertical row of buttons' on the left (or right) is using up valuable real-estate, and is not as useful as it once was.
All my sites are still traditional in their navigation, but largely because my customers expect this.
A site where the menu is over complicted is not as good as a nice clear HOME link
I'm probably with Knighty on this one, have a nice Home link and use the home page for all the complicated navigation, just lose it from the interior pages where possible.
Using Home, About Us, Contact, Products is really not very good from an SE persepective.
If a menu is keyword laden set it on the left, otherwise put it on the right.
1) Always, always design your site with the end user in mind first, the SE's second. SE's can't buy from your site, customers can :)
2) Secondly, you can easily use a left-hand navigation and still have the main content appear first in your code. Use a table layout and in your first row use two columns, a blank TD cell first and your content in the second. The 2nd column use ROWSPAN=2. Now, the next row put your left-hand navigation in the first TD cell using VALIGN=TOP ... if the layout isn't right, tweak it but that should basically do it.
Oh, did I mention design your sites for users first, SE's second?? ;) of course I did.
There was also an ecommerce sites study a year or more ago (can't remember where) which suggested that a LHS bar on the homepage is a "sweet spot" for product category lists - shoppers look for it there and if present most use it.
As others have stated, my mouse tends to linger on the RHS - but on arriving at a new page the location usually depends on where the link on the referring page was located.
Personally, I'm a growing fan of fading navigation - as you go deeper into a site tree the navigation simplifies to the point where leaf pages simply have a logo/link to the homepage and breadcrumbs to show where you are.
Thanks!
If having the navagation on the right slows a user down alittle I don't think that is a bad thing. I want them to notice banners and such on the page. If they can not find a clearly labeled menu than it is unlikely they would be able to buy or signup for anything anyway. I do believe people look on the left side first.
BTW I normally move my mouse to the right of the screen to read the page when i visit. But just because I want the arrow to be out of the way of what i am reading.
Have you tried printing a page that has left-hand navigation? How did you like the last 2 1/2 words of each sentence cut off?
Some pages use fixed width, others 'wrap'. The ones that wrap work fine - the ones with fixed width don't.
Put your nav bar on the right-hand side, and you page becomes very printer-friendly and in essence, user-friendly to the overwhelming majority of people over 15 years old who still like things on paper. ;)
Excellent point!
My main problem with RHN: Let's say we have a page layout of NCCCCCXX where N is the navigation area, C is the content area, and X is empty space. The content has been limited to 500px to keep reading usability at a max (11 words per line aprox). Now, if we switch to a RHN, we have CCCCCXXN, or XXCCCCCN, but it wouldn't make sense to put the empty space on the left since we are trying to put the most important item, the content, where the reader wants it.
The CCCCCXXN would look disjointed and empty for users viewing on screens higher than 800x600, where the white space would put more and more distance between the content and the nav. You could get around that by putting the nav next to the content, e.g. CCCCCNXX, but then you are defeating the whole purpose of moving the nav to the right side.
Any ideas for implementation of a RHN while keeping reading usability at a max and the site looking "normal"?
And as for printing, I too am a huge fan of hardcopies. I tend to get distracted on the pc, so I like to read the important articles/tutorials offline. The navigation is not important. If a site doesn't have a "print this page" button where it strips everything but the content, I view it as a half-arse site and tend to look for others.
I guess Googleguy will have to comment on user changes know.
But then, with AOL in know, all stat comparison will be useless.
What about XCCCCCNX ?
