Navigation Design
Successful interfaces are the ones in which the user can identify and find the important things they are after immediately. A well designed interface recognizes the courses of action users are most likely to take and presents those interface elements clearly and easy to access:
You must accomplish three fundamental concepts with your navigation design:
The Means: navigation design must provide the users with the means to get from one point to another on the site – these navigation elements must facilitate real user behavior
The Elements: navigation design needs to communicate the relationship between the elements it contains – what do these links have to do with one another? Are some more important than others? How are they different?
The Contents: navigation design must communicate the relationship between its contents and the page the user is currently viewing – Where am I? And what do these things have to do with what I am looking at right now? Now where can I go?
Why navigation design is so important?
Collectively, Apple and Android’s app stores are home to over 5.5 million apps. Every single one of those apps will have its own navigation design built right into it.Whether it’s in the form of a breadcrumb menu, a dropdown or tabs, every product needs to have a user flow that a person can navigate to achieve their goals.
Without well thought out navigation, your user may have trouble using your product and abandon you altogether. The reason that navigation design is so important is because it is method by which your user is able to explore and enjoy your product.
As Alan Cooper highlighted way back in his 2001 article Navigating isn’t Fun:
“A well-designed business program must make its structure and organization as clear as possible. Users don’t want to waste time solving the mystery of where resources and information are hidden.”
It’s the same for navigation design on the web and in apps. Without a good navigation system in place, users will struggle and leave, possibly never returning.
Other reasons why you shouldn’t overlook the importance of navigation design are:
It reflects your brand
It tells users their location
It provides access to information

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