Do you know what frustrates a website viewer the most? A complicated website design! Visitors do not like getting lost on a website. They hate being unable to find where they are and where they need to go. Solution? Make your website navigation easier. You should present categories and subcategories in a user-friendly way so that a visitor can access different pages without losing sense of what he or she is doing.
You would notice that websites or applications with easier navigation are likely to generate more viewer traffic. They also encourage the viewers to take desirable actions which lead to an increased conversions. As a web designer you should make sure that the website must have a logical progression. Keeping the basic colour scheme and fonts same throughout the website may make user journey more comfortable.
A CONSISTENT NAVIGATIONAL TRAIL:It will be a good idea that website owned by a single brand should have similar navigational elements. This will lead to users having a feel of brand idea that you are trying to promote. But if you are talking about different pages of the same website, it is strictly advised to stick to a single type of menus on all of them. It will confuse your visitors if they are greeted by a different theme, navigation style or different look on each page.
Media groups like Zee Entertainment Enterprises and Disney have similar navigational bars and headers on their brand's different websites. The basic UI design and brand guidelines are consistent. Experts believe that an important brand concept will be to have a single website design theme. This will Increase cross promotion of the brand's different products. It will reinforce the brand image that a variety of brand products aim to promote.
AVOID GIVING TOO MANY CHOICES:If you give someone too many choices , they will take longer to make a decision. This is a basic psychology pattern. Menus that have up to five choices stand a greater chance of receiving full visitor attention. Menu bars requiring scrolling down too much will prompt visitor to skim through rather than read properly. The question remains how to limit down number of choices when there need to be too many options presented!
One of the most popular idea used by successful web designers is to hide option in submenu. Prioritize what is important and should take primary position on your website or application. Keep secondary options for hidden menus that can be accessed in a logical progression. Consider Facebook . Primary icons like notifications, friend requests and news feed take place on top menu. Secondary things like groups joined, events or saved things come in side bar.
KEEP NAVIGATION OPTIONS IN FAMILIAR AREAS:Do not try to be too innovative with where to place basic navigation options. The moving back option is usually placed on the top left of a website. In a move to do things differently, if you place this button somewhere at the middle of your page it might confuse your visitor. Certain things are considered to be unwritten and unsaid website patterns. For example privacy policies are usually given in the footer of website that appears on all pages.
By keeping certain things in similar places you will encourage a greater user engagement; specially on social media websites. It is important to place action buttons like 'add to Shopping Cart' at familiar places to encourage more conversions. And while we are on familiarity, it is better to Use familiar symbols like shopping trolley for 'add to shopping cart'. Leave your creativity for aspects of website design other than navigation.
To conclude, it is important to engage users and visitors by providing a seamless navigation experience. Try stick to traditional approaches of navigation formats and provide your target audience with sense of familiarity. Keep an eye on what most of websites are doing with their navigation options . This is not to say trends may never change. They can and certainly do. It is up to you to trace the trends and provide your audience a comfortable web or app design.