Website Accessibility Proper Navigation

A very important point to        visit websites similar to your     consider while designing a      own to see which navigation        website is proper               structure they have chosen. The    navigation. You must ensure that      most common locations for your     potential clients or customers        navigation menu are either on the  are able to find the information      left side of the page or at the    they are looking for without too      top of the page. When internet     many clicks. As a quick rule of       users view a website, they do so   thumb, visitors to your site          using what is termed as a "Z       should be able to visit all your      scan". As soon as a page loads,    pages by using, at most, 3            most people scan from the          clicks. This is also important        top-left, across to the top-right  when considering search engine        of the page, then down to the      optimization (SEO) because search     lower-left, and eventually across  engines will only spider (or          to the lower-right of the page.    index) pages that are 3 clicks        So, it makes the most sense to     deep into your site. Not only         locate your navigation menu in     does proper navigation allow          the area where the user is going   users to find information they        to first look.                     are looking for, but it also                                             allows search engines to spider       Smaller sites usually only         (or index) the information they       require a static menu on either    are looking for. This is              the side or top of the page.       essential if you want high            However, website that contains 10  quality search engine traffic         - 15 topics on different pages     directed to your website.             may require a drop-down menu.                                            These menus may use DHTM,          Different types of websites           JavaScript, or some other          employ different navigation           programming language. When the     styles, so it is probably best to     user's mouse moves over a main     topic category, boxes containing      client's website, I always         subcategories will drop-down,         include text-based navigation      allowing the user to quickly find     links at the bottom of every page  the information they are looking      to ensure that they are            for. I f this type of menu is         accessible to all Internet users   used, it is best to also include      and search engine spiders.         text-based navigation in another                                         location on the page. Older           A Few Important Tips               browser versions may not support                                         drop-down menus, and therefore a      - Plan your site navigation        small percentage of people may        structure before designing your    not be able to navigate your          website to ensure that you are     website. Even more important          not forgetting any page links. It  though, is the fact that search       may be cumbersome to fix every     engines will not be able to           page you have created because you  navigate and index your site if       a missing a link or two.           there is no text based                                                   navigation.                           - The navigation menu must be                                            clean-cut and uniform.             Another concern is accessibility                                         by assistive technologies. For        - Do not make the user scroll      example, blind Internet users         down the page to see the           literally read the code of your       navigation menu.                   page. Therefore, if a navigation                                         menu is image based or uses image     - If you have too many links, use  maps, alternate text must be used     drop-down menus or create a site   to allow the user to properly         map.                               navigate the website. To make                                            things easy, no matter what type      - The navigation structure should  of navigation I choose for a          be flexible enough to allow the    inclusion of a additional links       link in the navigation structure,  at a later date.                      and / or linking your logo image                                         to the homepage.                   - Use short, clear and concise                                           words in your links so your           - For larger sites, breadcrumb     customers know exactly what type      trails can be used to let the      of information that page will         user know what section of the      contain.                              website they are in. For example,                                        at the top of a certain page, the  - Make sure every page has a link     user would see: "Home / Products   back to your homepage. This can       / Widgets / Green Widgets"         be achieved by providing a "Home"                                     About the Author: Paul Coulter owns and operates a custom web design company in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. If you would like to read more web design articles geared towared small business, or would like to contact Paul, visit his website: Cost Effective Web Design, Windsor ON http://www.cost-effective-design.com/ Read more articles by: Paul J Coulter Article Source: www.iSnare.com