Why Website Navigation is Important in Web Design

There are so many aspects that all come together to create a quality web design and one of the integral components is the website navigation. The website navigation is the overall term given to the any internal linking between the website pages and the process a website visitor goes through to access the content. If the navigation has not been designed well it can hinder the user experience which will essentially stop the site visitors from easily flowing through the website.

The main navigation is quite often referred to as the menu. The menu is normally displayed at the top or in a left column of the website and is present on every page. The menu is a key element in the web design and must standout compared to other design elements. A good web designer will be able to design a menu that compliments the web design. Another key navigation component that is found on nearly all websites is the footer menu. Normally this menu has the same items at the main menu but could include some other links that don't need as prominent position. You will find links like "about us", "terms and conditions", privacy policy" and "sitemap" in the footer.

Although the main menu and footer menu serve as the major navigation for most websites, there are many other navigation methods that are used in web design. One other very important navigation method is using text links within the content. Text links can be used to link a word or phase within a body of text to another relevant page. Text links should be used sparingly within the web design as using too many can complicate the layout and can hinder the users simple navigation method.

Another web design navigation method is using images to highlight important areas of the website. An image could be used to promote a special offer or a upcoming event. An image can use prominent colours and contrast to stand out against the total web design.

Using the text content around the website and factoring it into the web design layout is another successful form of navigation. The web design can include a few sentence from your latest blogs or news articles with a "read more" option. If one of the text snippets catch the users attention they would be inclined to click the link to read more.

Website navigation is very important as it creates the flow for the website user to travel around the website. A good web design should include a prominent and clear navigation system.