Using Innovative Methods To Design Navigation For Mega-sites

By Author: Krish Garison
Total Articles: 22
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Navigation has always been an issue for most websites, and yet it is not that challenging. All that is needed is the primary navigation bar, which is supported by the sub navigation. More often than not, this is enough. The sub-navigation bar would display the parent, siblings and sub-sets of the current page. The persistent bar at the top of the website would show the primary pages and facilitate users to move in-between sections. Yet, there are many websites for which this traditional system of website navigation falls short. This can be termed as the “mega-sites.”

The website developers often face difficulty in developing the navigation of these mega-sites. The mega-sites can be defined as the websites for large organization and enterprises that would encompass a broad range of services and products. The organization would also support a vast customer base. Some examples of these mega-sites are BBC, enterprises with diverse portfolio like Microsoft, IBM, government bodies, higher education institutions, large non-profitable organizations etc. The following are some of the attributes that is common to all websites,

• They ...
... are usually colossal
• They contain multiple levels
• Most of the time, they constitute of micro-sites and sub sections that has separate entity
• The website would have multiple entry points

Such colossal websites usually have their own set of complexities and presents unique navigational challenges.

Challenges in navigation of mega-sites

As an adept web development company, we often evaluate mega-sites to understand their challenges when imparting the traditional navigation. The traditional navigation would not support depth. The traditional format of the navigation would acknowledge three levels, and beyond that, either of these happens. The first is that the navigation expands to the threshold where more space is allocated to the navigation than the content. This is made worse with the total number of pages on the mega-site. Then the higher pages in the information architecture would no longer appear in the navigation.

The second thing that happens is that if the user were deep within the website, they would lose the purpose and context of the website, as they would see that the current page does not fit within the structure. The problem can be alleviated to an extent with the help of breadcrumbs. The challenges do not stop here. These websites can confuse the user who enters from the micro-site or subsection. The user may enter the website by focusing on the current context and they may not be interested in the bigger mega-website. Both the primary and secondary navigation would expose the user to a broad context whether they want it or not. To make things worse, the current context can alter the perception of the user.

Solutions #1

As with all other aspects of the web development, there is no fixed solution, however there would be a step forward from the navigation suited for the small websites. The following are the three radical navigation that can be chosen by the web development firm.

Russ Weakley first mentioned in 2006, the method of doing away with the traditional navigation altogether. It rejected the idea of compelling users with a navigation structure. Instead, the website was developed to enable the user to find their own path through the website. This was achieved by making each web page a separate word document and tagging the same with meta-data. The users could search for the pages with the help of search by tags. Integrating the links in the related documents based on the meta-data information available in the web pages would also make this possible. This was an advantageous solution, as it would support the website of an infinite size. The second benefit was that it would be suited for the users who come to the web page from another link and lastly, it would allow the development of a dynamic relationship between pages. It can easily accommodate extra pages being added or removed.

There are disadvantages also. Each section of the website would still have a landing page. The business might suffer for not having a proper website that can be managed. The approach would be successful only when there are appropriately tagged documents and they come with powerful search functionality. Both of these criterions are difficult to achieve with a mega-site.

Solution #2

The next method is to split the website into multiple, smaller micro-sites. These are easily manageable. Each of this sub sites would have their independent navigation and thus, there would be no problem as associated with mega-sites. The best way to avoid the disjointed experience for the audience who are transferring from one micro-site to another is by ensuring an improved navigation and an effective user-experience. Each of these websites would be same in appearance, as they would have the same design language, typography, layout and modules. The website developers would ensure a stable user-experience that would cater to the target demographics.

It is a fine line to walk as if the micro-sites are too different, the users would be confused, and if they were too similar, the customers would be thrown off.

Solution #3

There is the third solution that can be adopted by the website developers. This would do away with a dedicated navigation and instead apply the page’s content to link to the other sub pages. It would then use the breadcrumbs to identify the users and where they are located currently in the navigational hierarchy. There are many advantages in this approach. Firstly, it would minimize the total space that is dedicated to navigation. However, it would also enable detailed description for each page and this is what makes this method simple, clean and easy to understand and apply. This translates well onto a mobile screen. Using a prominent breadcrumb would provide the viewer the knowledge of their whereabouts in the website. The in-page navigation would make the next step obvious. The importance is on content.

There are also negatives associated with this method. Dependency on the breadcrumbs would provide little information to the user about the current position. The viewer would be unaware of the other pages in the current page. This would not be a problem if the user were just trying to complete a task. This approach is frustrating for those who are doing general research. The frustration results from the breadcrumb navigation that is used by the viewer to navigate up and down the website.

However, there is a hybrid approach. The website developers can use the breadcrumbs as the primary navigational tool and augment the experience with a more traditional solution. As we all can see that developing navigation for a mega-site is difficult, and therefore it is important to understand from the user’s point of view before developing the solution.

Author Bio:
Developing navigation for the mega-sites is difficult even for the most proficient website developers, yet following the above tips would help in accomplishing the task seamlessly. To know more about this, contact www.brandmantra.net