UW Web Ops Building Your Navigation

Creating your left hand navigation is the most difficult part of converting your web site. Only you know the content of your site, and know how people will use it, and so only you can know what your ideal navigation should be. However, there are a few general tips and concepts.

There are essentially three types of navigation: hierarchical, global and local. The UW Web Common Look and Feel combines aspects of all three.

Hierarchical: Hierarchical applies to sites that are information-rich and are best organized as a large tree. This certainly applies to most UW sites, and the movement of a site reader from splash page to primary link to sub-link to embedded link is an example of hierarchical navigation.

Global: Global navigation applies to sites where you can easily and logically jump among all points. The context provided by the expanded sub-items and the ability for readers to easily jump to your home page or the University’s home page, allows for global navigation.

Local: Local navigation sits somewhere in between. Local navigation is best provided by creating pages of links when the left navigation main links and sub-links are insufficient.

Your navigation should do the following.

Tell people exactly what is available on your site.
Help them get to the parts they want quickly.
Make it easy to request additional information.

Items 1 and 2 are accomplished by your left hand navigation. It is strongly recommended that no more than seven to nine items appear on the primary menu, and nine or fewer on the submenus. Good design suggests that menu item text should be: kept to a minimum; concise; descriptive; meaningful. The CSS will enforce appropriate case settings. Avoid departmental jargon and acronyms in the menus. If further explanation is required consider putting the link inside the content of a web page.

Item 3 is achieved by the information and links provided in the footer area of your web pages.