If you want to make your website look trendy and innovative as well as unique, you can do it in different ways – by choosing the right images, making proper use of white space, having clear text and information, and so on – but navigation is not the way to do it. Your website needs to be properly navigable, and an avant-garde website can be achieved not by experimenting on the navigability of your website but by making sure the navigation is as easy as can be.
The worst thing you can do is make it difficult for your visitors to find the information they need on your site. So how do you make sure that your site is easily navigable? Here are some simple and easy ways to do it.
- Your logo should be linked to your site’s homepage. This is a very common design element, and it’s an element which has proven effective for years. If you want users to have an easier time, start with linking your company logo to your site’s homepage.
- It’s also important to pay attention to your menu. In order for your site to be easier to go through, your menu should be placed at the top part of your website, specifically in your header. Aside from this, the menu should be properly structured so that it easily displays the sections which are most important all the way down to the sections which are least important.
- Offer your visitors ‘vertical navigability’. If your website is long-scrolling, why not make use of an anchor menu? An anchor menu is a cool feature as it ‘follows’ your website visitors as they go through a page so they will have an easier time. With a single click, a visitor can go straight back to the website’s top portion, the bottom portion, or to any other section.
- Don’t forget the footer. Whilst your website’s footer is most likely the last thing your visitors will notice, it’s still important to include essential links to it, such as other informative links (FAQ, terms of use, blog, contact, etc.) and social media icons which your visitors may find useful.
- The most important content should be placed at the top, or what professional designers would call ‘above the fold’. This isn’t really about navigation per se – it’s more about making sure that your website visitors will clearly and easily understand your main message without them having to look too hard for information or scroll through too many pages.
Having a properly designed and executed website isn’t so difficult if you have a good professional partner you can work with, such as experienced professionals in website design in Oxford. With proper attention to the above aspects, you’ll have a clearly navigable website in no time.