This is going to be my second last post, I didn't finish week 11 so that will be going up after week 13.
Also, I wrote the wrong chapter last week so I will be doing Price chapter 10 this week instead of 17 which I was supposed to do last week.
Price Chapter 10: Idea #6: Write Menus That Mean Something!
Write a Heading as an Object You Will Reuse Many Times
- Plan to use the same heading over and over again
- Reassure your readings by reusing your heading to make sure they know they are on the right page.
- Write longer headings - make sure your reader knows what the page is going to be.
- Your heading explains what a given function does (Copper, 1995)
- Make your heading explain what the user will see... introduction = Introducing the Unified Process
- Make your headings uniform and explain the pages content.
- Straightforward, consistent headings and titles reassure your readers.
- Indicate to your readers that you are going to tell them something.
- Don't be funny about it just tell it how it is, also to reassure your readers.
Write Each Menu So It Offers a Meaningful Structure
- People learn through your structure.
- Presenting a menu structure will offer your guests guidance through your site.
- Try out different organizational methods; move your headings around to see if they make more sense, eliminate duplicate topics, annotate your topics, add in topics and delete ones that are unnecessary. Replace topics with components, divide a topic into different components. Pretty much the key here is to make it as simple and easy to understand as possible. The thing with headers is that they can be difficult to navigate, if they aren't to the point the reader may not be able to understand what you're getting at.
- A menu is meaningful and is like a site map, it lets you know all of the information that you will be presenting.
- If a menu is presented well your reader will be able to tell because you will have topic groupings, and organization.
- Grouping your menu items by purpose ie: how to's and types.
- Create menus with sub menues.
Offer Multiple Routes to the Same Information
- Encourage your guests to take their own way to a certain page but offer them more than one way to get there.
- Offer similar headings in multiple menus.
- Multiple menus that will take you to the same place will offer the same outcome.
Write and Display Several Levels at Once
- Have menus that lead to other menus that will lead you to what you are looking for.
- Don't hide menus, they are important for the navigation of your site.
- Show multiple menus at a time.
- Make a filtering menu that will take it to more specific pages.
When Users Arrive at the Target, Make Success OBVIOUS
- Confirm that the link they clicked worked, change the title, headings, introductory text, and caption under photos.
- Make sure the text from the link and the title match.
Confirm the Location by Showing the Position of This Informative Object in the Hierarchy
- Leave a trail from where they came from to where they are now
- Make sure they can get back to where they came from
- Be sure to let them know where they are in the menu
My Thoughts.
Menus are possibly the easiest way to navigate through a site, however it is often that I get lost. Let me tell you that I am horrible at creating menus, and making my way to the place I want to be. I tend to google to where I want to go. Or possibly ctrl. F to get the where I am going.
I was searching on the Canada website to find jobs and I had a lot of trouble finding where I wanted to go. There wasn't links to find it so I have to go to the site inventory to find where I wanted to go rather than having it all laid out with links to the jobs/careers site.
I find that Price offers many good suggestions that I wish more sites would use, like multiple ways to get to the same page. Or if you are on a page and want to know where you came from. I find that WebCT does this very well. If you look at the top of the page just above the page that you're on it will tell you how far into that page you've gone, which I always find very helpful.
Needless to say menus are an important part of website development and navigation that I really appreciate.
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