Articles
[14/03/2010] Significance of Navigation feature in Web Designing
Navigation is not just a feature of web designing; in fact it is the hallmark of an effective web design. Just like shelves and walls make a great building, similarly the viability of a website depends on its mode of navigation. Most users are not just looking for information on the website; in fact they interact with the web design in unique ways. Therefore, the web designers must be experts in the art of web designing. The interface of the computer system is known as the graphical user interface or GUI. This consists of various graphical images and concepts used to convey varying functions, of the background coding on the computer terminal. Similarly a websites design mainly comprises of the interactions between the visual aspects of every component of the graphical interface, with its functionality. Therefore the usage of graphics is not just about decorating the web design but is strategic in deciding the users experience on the website.
Navigation on the World Wide Web is often referred to as ‘way finding’. This refers to the navigation through space on the web comprising of websites. Way finding has concepts that refer to orientation, route decisions, mental mapping and closure. Orientation is used by web designers to describe the needs of the user and the position where he is located at that point of time. Route decides the direction of the user, and mental maps are used for way finding on the World Wide Web. Closure lets the user realize that he has arrived at the right destination.
The user may also face difficulties while navigating through single page websites. Here, the websites design may not completely fit in the computer screen and may require vertical or horizontal scrolling. There may be a lower part of the websites design that cannot be seen at a first glance. In the case of small screen mobile derives, the user is restricted to only a small part of the websites design due to a limited view. Here the real picture of the websites design cannot be viewed and can only be scrolled bit by bit. Therefore, the web designers are required to give explicit information of the website design as only a small segment of the web design can be viewed by the user.
Clarity is strategic when creating a website design, as when a user is navigating through hypertext links on the website, he may get confused regarding his position on the website. Navigation must be easy and clearly defined in the form of clear and consistent icons, web page titles and headings, graphical and text based summary and graphical representations that are unique to the websites design. In simple and jargon free words, the user should be able to return easily to the homepage or any other point of navigation on the website design. The presence of headers on each web page gives the user a clear picture of about the location of the user in relation to the website. At web design London, experts with the professional web design concepts give immense importance to navigation and way finding while maintaining the simplicity and consistency in the art of interface designing.
