Why would navigating your website be important?

When people are on the www they are searching, generally for information or products and if your website doesn't tell them what they want to know quickly they will be gone  ... in a click of the mouse!

While it might be boring for web designers, successful websites have a certain standard look and feel regardless of the colours and pictures that are used.  The reason being that people are accustomed to looking for information in certain places and when they can't find what they are looking for they ... click ... and they are gone.  So websites should always be designed with the customer in mind and not for the glorification of the web designers latest fad, piece of technology or pleasure.  We still find it amazing that so many web designers waste precious viewer time with flash front pages which do nothing more than make you wait to see a lovely picture or effect.  Nice as this may be in statistical practicalities this type of page looses more traffic than it gains, especially when not everyone has high speed internet.

So what is successful in website design?

•A clear Header or logo tells people where they are but don't waste half the web page on this
•Menus should be at or near the top or left side near the top
•Sub menus should be easy to click on and clearly named.
•Search buttons should be at the top right or bottom left
•Translation tools should be top right
•Don't make people do unnecessary clicks - visitors should find what they want in no more than 2-3 clicks
There are ways to track viewer behaviour on the web and below is a classic Google Heat Map showing in Red the places where most people look and click and grading down in colour.

The heat map shows why people want to be in the top listings on Google because that is where most people look and click.

 Bottom line when designing your website is to look at it like a customer or visitor would and if you find it impossible to be objective ask your friends to give you honest feedback on their browsing experience.