As web site designers, we always try to create web site navigation scheme that (1) is consistent throughout the entire web site and (2) allows the site's visitors to find what they are searching for quickly and easily. A consistent site navigation scheme shows your potential customers that you are thinking about their ease of finding your products or services on your web site.
Text Links
Many web newbie’s understand that blue, underlined text is a hyperlink. For this reason, we think that it's generally a good idea to include text links in your web site design along with other graphic images.
The link colours in your text should be familiar to your visitor, if possible. Blue text usually indicates an unvisited link and purple or maroon text usually indicates a visited link. If you elect not to use the default colours, your text links should be emphasized in some other way: boldfaced, a larger font size, set between small vertical lines or square brackets, or a combination of these. Text links should be unique - they should not look the same as any other text in your web pages. You do not want people clicking on your headings because they think the headings are links.
Advantages:
The biggest advantage of using text links is the quick download time. If you are using large graphic images on your web pages, then it might be best to have a navigation scheme of text links. The other advantage of text links is that some of the text can be keywords.
Disadvantages:
The biggest disadvantage of text links is that they can be boring to look at, especially if you have a large amount of blue links sprinkled throughout your web pages. People like simplicity and ease of navigation. Thus, if there is a way to make your text links more visually appealing and easy to discern from other sections of content, such as placing them in a coloured table cell or a coloured sidebar, then we recommend you do this.
Graphic Images - Navigation Buttons
Graphic images add uniqueness, colour, and personality to a web site. Most web sites we see use web graphics (buttons) as a navigation scheme.
Advantages:
Graphic images have visual appeal. Peoples' eyes are naturally drawn to a splash of colour and a change in dimension. The biggest advantage to using navigation buttons is that they give your visitors a visual representation of how to navigate your site right away, especially if the navigation buttons are visible on the top part of a computer screen.
Another advantage of using graphic images/navigation buttons is that as long as the navigation buttons have alternative text in the HTML code, your web site can still be navigated even if your visitors turn off the graphic images. (For tips on writing the HTML for graphic images, click here.)
If navigation buttons are used in conjunction with text links, you have multiple places to put keywords: both within the text link and the alternative text of the navigation buttons. Many search engine optimisation specialists recommend this combination for good search engine indexing.
Disadvantages:
Download time is a big consideration in determining whether or not you should use navigation buttons. In general, you should keep the navigation buttons' file size to between 1K-5K in file size and dimensions between 60-165 pixels in width and 25-60 pixels in height. You don't want the main message of your site to be the navigation buttons, and you don't want people clicking off of your site waiting for all of your navigation buttons to download.
Many sites are getting away from using a bevelled effect on navigation buttons to show variety in web site design. The disadvantage of this idea is that many visitors might not understand that the graphic image is a hyperlink. One of the main reasons bevelled buttons are so popular is that people believe that a "buttony" image is "clickable." The following shows two sets of navigation buttons - the bevelled buttons appear to be more "clickable."
Drop Down Menus - Javascript, CGi, Etc.
JavaScript is a scripting language supported in Netscape Navigator
since version 2.0 and in Microsoft Internet Explorer since version 3.01.
You can program with JavaScript directly into your HTML pages, making
it a very popular means to navigate a web site. A navigation scheme can
also be coded using a CGI script.
Here is what a drop-down menu looks like (JavaScript not coded here):
Advantages:
The main advantage of drop-down menus is web page real estate. Drop-down
menus don't take up as much screen space as multiple graphic images.
As long as you know that the majority of your site visitors use browsers
that support JavaScript, this is a very useful navigation tool.
Disadvantages:
The main disadvantage of this type of navigation scheme is that many
early browsers do not support JavaScript. If you know that many of your
site visitors and customers use browsers that don't support JavaScript,
then it would be best to use alternative forms of site navigation.
If your site navigation uses a CGI script, you must have a web server
support your type of script.
Dynamically Generated URL's
A dynamically generated navigation scheme, such as pages generated in
a search function, is best used for web sites that have databases. For
example, online stores with a large inventory can create a search function
for their users to find the products they are looking for.
Advantages:
Dynamically generated URL's, particularly for online stores, help potential
customers find the products or services very quickly. Site visitors can
type in a search term and find what they are looking for within three
clicks.
Search functions also don't take up much screen space.
Disadvantages:
The main disadvantage with this navigation scheme is that many search
engines will not index dynamically generated URL's. Thus, in order to get
your web site indexed, it is best to submit non-dynamically generated
web pages to the search engines.
Maintaining both a database that generates web pages (i.e. dynamically
generated) and static (HTML) pages can be both expensive and time consuming.
