The Rules of Web Site Coherency

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by Mark Joyner

Let's take a little test.

Imagine you are surfing a Web site You are looking for an exact piece of information.

Now imagine you have to navigate through an incomprehensible maze of text and bizarre links. After 30 tedious seconds of this, imagine what you would do next.

If you're like me, you'd just hit the back button and go away. Who needs it, right? I barely have enough time to eat lunch. How am I going to find the time to pore through an incomprehensible site that may, or may not, have what I need?

This is a common problem on the net. Even sites that are otherwise well-designed often miss the mark here.

Take a moment right now and look at your site. Is it easy to navigate? This exercise requires quite a bit of honesty. You have to step outside yourself. What makes sense to you may or may not make sense to someone else.

Wouldn't it be nice to have some hard and fast rules, here? To ensure your site always makes sense to the surfer, you can do one of two things (or both):

2. Provide a nonlinear navigational structure that is:
   1. Easy to understand
   2. Easily Recognizable
   3. Consistent

This site employs both of the above examples. It provides a linear path through the site in the form of an article. Since the purpose of this site is to sell a product, providing a linear path is an extremely effective choice.

However, what if someone visits the site and has a particular question? For example, they might say: "Look, I just want to download the software."

That is where the nonlinear navigational structure comes in. Take a look at the above site again. You'll see that the "nav-bar" (the series of buttons on the left that tell you what else is available on the site) has the following three features:

• It is easily recognizable. That is, it is where you would expect to find it. The person looking to download or purchase the item will immediately know where to go.

• It is consistent. On each page, the nav-bar is in the same position. That is, you don't have to hunt for it each time.