Guidelines for Enhanced User Navigation Experience
Creating a seamless and intuitive user experience is crucial for any website. Here are some navigation design principles that can help you achieve this goal.
Clarity is Essential
Rule 1 emphasises the importance of clarity in written content. The text should be clear, concise, and easy to understand, ensuring that it says what it means and means what it says.
Keep it Simple and Consistent
Rule 2 suggests using simple language and keeping the reading age as low as possible, assuming that users have no technical knowledge. Navigation UX rules that are almost always applicable include keeping navigation simple and consistent, ensuring clarity in labeling, providing clear visual hierarchy, enabling easy access to key features, and maintaining responsiveness across devices.
Design Icons with Care
Rule 3 advises designing icons to be obvious, avoiding overlap or similarity to prevent confusion. Rule 5 emphasises the importance of consistency in labels, icons, etc., with help text reinforcing the purpose of an icon and not offering conflicting messages. Once there's a cultural agreement on what an icon means, the thing that inspired the icon doesn't have to be around anymore.
Avoid Complexity
The objective of navigation design is to get the user to where they want to go with the minimum of fuss. Navigation should feel supportive and reassuring, never ridiculing, patronizing, or annoying users. Familiar icons, descriptions, etc. that have become industry standards should be used to avoid re-inventing the wheel.
Test for Clarity
Testing clarity with users or non-design team members is recommended when uncertain. If users do not understand the text, it is suggested to go back to the design process.
Lewis Carroll's Approval
The importance of clarity in written content is highlighted by Lewis Carroll's approval. By following these navigation design principles, you can ensure that your website is user-friendly and easy to navigate, providing a positive user experience.
