Any design suggestions for a site with lots of important links?

Looking for design tips for a site that requires a lot of navigation.

[alex_cross]

My site requires about 40 important links be on each page. I'm having a hard time making the navigation easy to use. Any suggestions other than a long left hand margin?

[Nick_W]

What are the links? Section/subsection, a mixture?

Nick

[martinibuster]

I would divide the links into natural divisions. Like:

SOFTWARE
software for home users.
Software for Corporate users.
Software for kids.

then:

ONLINE SERVICES.
Encyclopedia
Groupware

Try taking a look at Adobe's web site, and how they organize stuff. I've found them a very good jumping off point.

Personally, 40 links are overwhelming. But if you can do the above, and I think keep in one spot (like to the left) instead of seeding the links at the top AND the left (like microsoft.com), then you'll be better off. Multi-locational links are tough to figure out, unless there is a STRONG hierachy going on.

[alex_cross]

I'll take a look.

[pleeker]

One thing I've done in the past where there's a lot of content, and thusly, a lot of links to the content, is to color-code each section of the site. All content in the NEWS section is green, everything in the JOBS section is blue, etc. It's not unlike how Amazon has a different color for every one of their stores.

This doesn't answer your question about using sidebar navigation or not, but it could help your users identify where they are in this big pile of content. Good luck.

[tedster]

I prefer the kind of scheme martinibuster describes. I know I would try to use categories if I faced this requirement. I feel there is something nearly hard-wired into the human brain about groups of 7 as a limit for easy comprehension.

With 40 links to fit in, you might get away with 6 categories, but I'd definitely try for no more than 7. And then limit each category to 7 links.

I like the Adobe scheme. I'll bet they worked very hard to come up with those categories.

I also think Amazon has done an amazing job organizing their page - but they did resort to a "show more stores" tab, and I'll bet that which store get hidden in that link has a lot to do with their customer database, including your most recent purchases.

Sometimes in situations like you've described, there are one or two real oddball links that just won't fit naturally into any category you can copme up with. I once worked on a site where there were two oddballs like that. What I did there was to treat those links as something completely "other"... a totally different visual treatment. Since they were "other" any way, this makes complete visual sense in describing that site.

So the main categories looked like a set whose members were all one kind of thing (in your case, categories of links) - and the eye naturally sees them as a group. The two oddballs were then at the bottom, as a different kind of thing which you could either tune out or focus on.

[alex_cross]

Appreciate the assistance. What do you think about Pulldown menus? Do you know a site that makes good use, using a good number of Pulldowns?

[pleeker]

Yes, I should also have added that the scheme martinibuster described with a half-dozen main sections and then sub-sections or sub-pages below each one is the best way to present this.

Pulldowns may be another option, but I never cease to be amazed by the number of people who simply cannot find the item they want on a pulldown list. I guess some folks just don't realize there's a full list of options to be seen on a pulldown menu.