Designing Web Navigation

NAVIGATION CONCEPT

A navigation concept is a model of how people will navigate the site. It doesn't specify a solution, but instead provides the vision for how the solution should be created. A concept guides design and development for the entire team. In terms of persuasive architecture, a navigation concept represents how the site will encourage users to take certain actions. Two common ways of describing a site concept are by genre or metaphor.

GENRE AS CONCEPT

As discussed in Chapter 2, recognizable forms or genres of information potentially improve visitor orientation and give a sense of context. You can also use them as the basis of a navigation concept. For instance, newspapers have a recognizable form: there is a front page, headlines, a lead story, and topical sections. Online newspapers typically retain some of these common genre-defining aspects of offline newspapers. But new elements are brought in as well, including links to blog postings, the ability to comment on articles directly online, and the inclusion of video footage. The basic concept of a newspaper—which we are all familiar with—is not lost online and serves as an underlying concept for news sites.

Figure 8-2 shows the home page of The Los Angeles Times (http://www.latimes.com/). The lead story, other headlines, and various sections are familiar within the newspaper genre. But some online-only aspects can be found, such as Most Viewed Stories, Blogs, and Videos. By treating these areas as further sections of ...