Anybody who deals with a website or a company’s online presence will sooner or later have to deal with the issue of web usability. This com­plic­ated-sounding term describes how user-friendly a website is in general. In effect, the objective of every website is to present visitors with the most useful platform for finding and using in­form­a­tion, en­ter­tain­ment, products, etc. The site should be easy to use and offer something to the user; be it value, info, or something else. While in theory this might sound quite easy, in reality there are several necessary and important steps that are required in order to achieve meas­ur­able success. In terms of web usability, the decisive factor above all is website nav­ig­a­tion that can then com­ple­ment the web design and content in a mean­ing­ful way.

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Website nav­ig­a­tion struc­tures: The key to user-friend­li­ness

There is a wide­spread mis­un­der­stand­ing out there when it comes to the topic of website structure; ap­par­ently, it should either be a sort of clickable “business card”, or else a tre­mend­ous work of art that should amaze all viewers with its optical ex­tra­vag­ance. Anyone who thinks like this is a long way off the right approach and aims of good online marketing. First and foremost, websites are in­ter­act­ive com­mu­nic­a­tion channels that increase awareness of people, busi­nesses, products, services, brands, artists, etc. This is done by attaining a large reach and then con­vin­cing users of the quality of content and/or products. This premise is valid for everything from private blogs to com­mer­cial online stores.

In order to make your website an online success, next to high-quality content and design, you also have to consider whether you have an optimal nav­ig­a­tion structure. But exactly what is website nav­ig­a­tion? What makes it good? What ad­vant­ages does it bring? And how do you optimise it to bring more success (and turnover) to your website?

Nav­ig­a­tion structure – the fun­da­ment­als of web usability

A nav­ig­a­tion structure that is as clear as possible is the corner­stone of every suc­cess­ful website, as it is key to the visitor having a pleas­ur­able ex­per­i­ence. If a website’s structure allows someone to quickly and in­tu­it­ively click through and find what it is that they are looking for, then it is much more likely that they will be open to becoming a regular customer or user of what the website is offering. In order for your website to be user-friendly enough that people will want to linger on it (i.e., a website that catches someone’s interest and interacts with them), it requires the following es­sen­tials:

Clear structure: users should be able to figure out the structure of the website and get their bearings

Intuitive interface: with very few clicks, users should be able to arrive at the goal of their search (e.g. in­form­a­tion, products, services, etc.)

Un­der­stand­able and useful content: as well as being com­pre­hens­ible for users, it should also be relevant to them and/or provide solutions

Visible features for in­ter­ac­tion: users should always be aware of how they can get in touch with the website operator and acquire his/her products/services (e.g., via ques­tion­naires, re­gis­tra­tion, purchase, order, review, imprint, etc.)

A practical and simple website nav­ig­a­tion is not only be­ne­fi­cial for visitors to the site but can also con­trib­ute pos­it­ively to success in marketing; the easier and more suc­cess­ful a user ex­per­i­ence on your website is, the more likely you are to lead users to click through and create con­ver­sions. This will be made evident by the user’s in­ter­ac­tions with your site — for instance, they have been persuaded to order a product from your online store, subscribe to your news­let­ter, or even download a PDF with further details on what it is that you are offering. These “con­ver­sions” are meas­ur­able via analysis tools and help to increase the website’s reach, and hopefully its turnover to boot.

On top of this, optimal website nav­ig­a­tion doesn’t just lead to happier users – it also makes your website more at­tract­ive from a search engine point of view, i.e., by giving you a better ranking in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) and rewarding your site by dis­play­ing some of your subpages in the form of clickable sitelinks. This makes the im­prove­ment of website nav­ig­a­tion also an important aspect of the SEO methods for enhancing your website.

Optimal nav­ig­a­tion: Website examples and ex­plan­a­tion

In order to ensure that your site has a good nav­ig­a­tion structure, careful planning is of great im­port­ance. Only once the aims, content, and appeal of your website are clearly set out, you can then begin with in­ter­twin­ing relevant site nav­ig­a­tion, web design, great content — and then integrate them all together into one cohesive website. Of course you might have the best content in the world, but it is of no use if it cannot be easily found. Therefore you need to firstly plan out a logical order and clear structure, and you should keep this in the back of your mind in everything that you do while building the website. Put yourself in the position of the user: how should the website nav­ig­a­tion look so that someone could almost use it in their sleep? Next you will need a clear hierarchy for the topics with as few sections as possible so that the user can find what they are looking for in a matter of seconds — es­pe­cially if it is their first time on your website. You should also always bear in mind that the attention span of the average internet user is usually quite short and there are generally a lot of websites out there that are competing with yours for this attention. This means that if a user does not find what they are looking for straight away, then it is a lot more con­veni­ent for them to return to the search engine and simply click on the next result. In turn this then leads to a bounce rate that will then have a negative effect on your website’s SEO prowess, and in turn on your overall business results. You can make life a bit easier for yourself by taking note of users’ general reading habits like the F pattern.The F pattern comes from proven studies into the common reading habits of internet users. It refers to the ap­prox­im­ate scanning movements that readers make and what the eye takes in while looking over a text heavy website. It begins with a long ho­ri­zont­al movement over the top menu, then a downwards movement to read a bit more content across the page, before finally ver­tic­ally scanning over the rest of the content on the page, i.e., in an F pattern or layout. This is further proof that you can only win customers over if you present them with the important content quickly, clearly, and in a compact manner.

Image: Website of the magazine DMM (Digital Marketing Magazine)
The website of the magazine DMM. Here we see a clear nav­ig­a­tion design in the F pattern with a ho­ri­zont­al main menu (very top) and then a vertical list of the “Popular articles today” (left). This list of trending articles is also what is known as “sticky”, meaning that it follows the user and remains visible even while they scroll down. Source: http://di­git­al­mar­ket­ing­magazine.co.uk/

It is usually the case that, above all, good website nav­ig­a­tion is made up of a logical hier­arch­ic­al order, clear menus, as well as un­der­stand­able labels and de­scrip­tions. For this reason it might be a good idea to limit yourself to a minimum number of sections. Ap­prox­im­ately seven main menu sections per online presence are re­com­men­ded. The menu should be visible; right at the top of the page is best so that it can be scanned from left to right. When naming the different menu cat­egor­ies you should also not be too general and instead opt for terms that users actually search for (e.g., with clothing menus use “Fashion” or “Male/Female” as opposed to just “Products”). What this then ensures is that customers can find the page they are looking for with the minimum number of clicks without having to navigate through hidden pages be­fore­hand or ones that are void of any relevant content.

Depending on the extent and com­plex­ity of your content, it may also be advisable to organise your menu them­at­ic­ally with a main menu, submenus, and landing pages, i.e., with a maximum of three levels (in this order: General in­form­a­tion – Specific in­form­a­tion – More detailed in­form­a­tion, with an in­ter­act­ive option as well). The main menu items refer to further submenus (be careful with using elaborate drop down menus as they may cover up important in­form­a­tion and/or impair mobile users). The whole thing should then come to a head with the final subpage and an offer, along with a very clear call to action (CTA) that prompts in­ter­ac­tion with the website. CTA buttons are the symbolic endpoint of the customer journey through everything that the site has to offer, and in the best case this journey will then end with the desired action, e.g., with a purchase, download, re­gis­tra­tion, or entering of contact details for future marketing campaigns.

Image: Example of a website with CTA buttons from the online music streaming service Spotify
This website is an example of good nav­ig­a­tion. Par­tic­u­larly in e-commerce it is im­per­at­ive that CTA (call to action) buttons are clearly visible and also placed very close to the actual offer. The website of the online music streaming service features several clearly visible buttons that all lead to in­ter­ac­tions. Source: https://www.spotify.com

It is also possible to get an even better overview of the website’s structure through the use of a secondary nav­ig­a­tion system, which is known as a “bread­crumb” nav­ig­a­tion system. This allows you to present, through the use of keywords, a clear path from the main menu to a subpage. With this system, the user can then click on these keywords to easily and flexibly jump back and forwards between different pages. These bread­crumbs should also be found in the URLs of the re­spect­ive subpages and can be compared to the shelves of a well-organised grocery store. Here, for example, you can find your favorite pasta if you go to the “Food” section, from there to the “Pasta” and finally to “Spaghetti”. By providing a search template on your website that operates based on specific terms being entered, as well as a tag cloud with internal links to important keywords, you can make it a lot easier for users to navigate your website.

Image: Screenshot of a subpage from the online clothes retailer ASOS with breadcrumb navigation
A look at this web page from the ASOS website demon­strates how bread­crumb nav­ig­a­tion can really improve the whole website overview. At any time the user can go to the top of the page and jump back and forwards based on the themes and cat­egor­ies. This makes any search a lot easier. Source: http://us.asos.com/men/jeans/skinny-jeans/cat/?cid=5403&set­Pref­S­ite=true&r=1&mk=na

Better website nav­ig­a­tion through design and content

It should also be pointed out that a good nav­ig­a­tion structure is not just dependent on layout. The style, color scheme, and content design of the website are also integral if you want to make your online presence more at­tract­ive for users and achieve a good search engine ranking.

Website nav­ig­a­tion and design go hand in hand

Finding the right design for your website is strongly dependent on in­di­vidu­al ori­ent­a­tion. The best examples of this can be very clearly seen on many com­mer­cial websites. The design should be con­sist­ent through­out and make your site im­me­di­ately re­cog­niz­able, as well as being con­sist­ent with the corporate identity of your company. This should go hand in hand with aspects like the company logo, colors, branding, and layout. When push comes to shove, the design should speak to the visitor, bring about positive as­so­ci­ations, and your offers should remain in their mind. The color scheme of your website should be nuanced, con­sist­ent and styl­ist­ic­ally suitable when it comes to your business, industry, and product, i.e., neither too intrusive nor too mono­ton­ous. The ac­com­pa­ny­ing layout should also be of a clear, con­sist­ent, and pleasant character, while still being able to com­mu­nic­ate the in­form­a­tion ef­fect­ively and sus­tain­ably. When it comes to something like design, it’s becoming more and more important nowadays that mobile users are also taken into con­sid­er­a­tion. A re­spons­ive web design that is optimised for smart­phones and tablets, helps not only web usability, but has also become a necessity for search engine op­tim­isa­tion.

Content for a good nav­ig­a­tion structure: Image and text

Make sure not to overload your website with too many un­ne­ces­sary and dis­tract­ing images. A good nav­ig­a­tion structure means the visual elements will con­trib­ute to the general ori­ent­a­tion of the site. Place clearly visible nav­ig­a­tion symbols and CTA buttons in several different places on your site so that users can access your offers at any time. Even here you should ask yourself: what is the central offer/message of my website and what actions (and where) should users be per­form­ing? Limit yourself to an expedient look that is appealing, but not ag­gress­ive. Carefully placed “white spaces” (the portion of the page left unmarked) can help to create a pleasant, clear, and precise overall message.

Image: Website of the classifieds website Craigslist
The website of the clas­si­fieds website Craiglist (this par­tic­u­lar screen­shot is from the New York site) is not so user-friendly. Despite so many menu com­pon­ents, there is hardly any overview, no com­pre­hens­ible structure, as well as no cor­res­pond­ing design — it has quite an over­bear­ing effect; something which then hampers ori­ent­a­tion, Source: https://newyork.craigslist.org/

Internet users conduct searches based on themes, terms, and reactions — this is why good content should be the core of your website. Texts are the most important medium for in­form­a­tion and order within your website nav­ig­a­tion design. Text content should be for­mu­lated in a way that is clear, concrete, short, and to the point. Avoid using gen­er­al­ised state­ments, un­suit­able language, and sentences that are complex and con­vo­luted; all of the above will fail to offer any new insights or solutions to the user. Re­gard­less of whether it’s an online article, blog entry, or a product de­scrip­tion in an e-commerce store — users want to receive in­form­a­tion that is in­form­at­ive and well-struc­tured. This is why you need to pay attention to relevance and elements like title, headlines, sub-headlines, high­light­ing (e.g., texts in bold, i.e., phrases, lists, etc.) as well as para­graphs that are compact and coherent.

Image: A structured article from The Independent newspaper with headline, sub headline, paragraphs, and highlighted text
An article with pictures from the newspaper The In­de­pend­ent: the content is struc­tured in a way that is clear and to the point; headline, sub-headline, para­graphs, high­lighted text, and links to other pages all guide the reader to the most important aspects, Source: http://www.in­de­pend­ent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/food-drink-snacks-fried-chicken-nutella-cheese-wine-chocolate-pot-noodle-a7640091.html

Them­at­ic­ally relevant visual content like graphics, photos, and videos can improve page ori­ent­a­tion and the usability of your website. But these should also only be used sparingly and if they are, then they should contain effective and de­script­ive meta data. An effective com­bin­a­tion of written language and image content, as well as them­at­ic­ally relevant internal and external links (to your own subpages) will improve the page ori­ent­a­tion options as well as the quality of the landing pages, par­tic­u­larly in the area of SEO. However, these landing pages should then always contain what has been promised by the original subpage (anchor text). Otherwise the user, when they click on the link, won’t get what they were ori­gin­ally promised or looking for.

Summary: Your website lives on nav­ig­a­tion, design, and content

A well thought out and optimised nav­ig­a­tion structure is the backbone of good web usability for every website. As long as you follow a few basic rules, this should be at­tain­able for every online presence. And with re­l­at­ively little expense. At the beginning there is also the decisive question: what do you actually want to offer your customers and what is the best way to provide this? If you con­tinu­ously work on struc­tur­ing your online presence with clear nav­ig­a­tion, a cor­res­pond­ing web design, and good content, then it will continue to become more user-friendly and come ever closer to de­liv­er­ing the perfect user ex­per­i­ence.

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