4. Presentation

HomesOfBoulderCounty.com

To paraphrase an old adage, "In websites it's navigation, navigation, navigation."

If the visitor becomes confused, lost or frustrated...they will leave and not come back. This is the information age and they know the Internet is full of sources for their need. They can afford to shop around (one click away) and they do.

So, your website's navigation must be crisp and clear. There are two broad aspects to navigation to keep in mind. One is the menu system that is used on the site. The other is the content or ideas in that menu system.

First, the menus should be fixed. Do not move your menus around on your visitor. The menu that appears on the homepage should be the same menu that appears on all pages of the site and it should be in the same location on the page. Does this limit your creativity or make your site bland? If so, then so be it; however it won't. The menus are the one thing the visitor can hang onto. They are the only guide through the webwork of your information. Keep them consistant.

Second, the information you put on the menus must be logical to your visitor. Each business, each market has different logic and you know yours. Just be sure to use your visitors' logic, the logic of the un-initiated, and not yours if it is different.

Think in fives. Studies show the average human mind can work well with that number. In the first tier of the menus, break your information into five categories. Under each category, again break it into five, and so on until you get to the end leaf of the limb. WME has designed dynamic menus which will support this expansion system. So as you add pages to your site in the future, you will not have to know anything about the menus because they will automatically include your new pages.

There are several other important considerations to presentation on a website such as page layout, color blending and web metaphors such as links. However, navigation as defined above is the most important and can ruin your site if not done correctly.