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Web design principles: navigation and frames (screen 8 of 17)
Navigation
Your website can be as unusual or as avant-garde as you want. But keep the following in mind:
- Users must be able to move around your site easily.
- They must know where to click to move to other screens at your site, or particular parts of your site - for example, if you want people to be able to get to the ticket purchase screen, can they find it easily and with the minimum number of mouse clicks or scrolling?
- Try not to lose users - let them know where they are within your site as they move around it.
The navigation bar
In other words you must decide on a way for users to move around your website. This is usually done by providing users with a 
navigation bar(1). This can take many forms and is often either a vertical bar on the left side of the screen, a horizontal bar along the top or the bottom of a screen or a drop-down menu.
The options in the navigation bar remain the same on all screens and this provides the user with a consistent way of finding their way around your site.
Website designers will often include some mechanism, for example, JavaScript, to show the user which part of the website they are currently in. JavaScript can be used to make text or graphics change colour as a mouse moves over them - that provides users with feedback on their actions.
It's a good idea to look at a number of different websites and see how they have approached the question of navigation. You can start by looking at sites in our Search engine(2).
Essential information to put on your website
Your website should contain the following information and that information should be easy to find:
- Your organisation's physical address, particularly if you are an organisation which expects to be visited by the public.
- A postal address.
- Telephone number or numbers.
- Fax numbers.
- Email contact addresses (there may be a number of these).
- Opening or business hours (where applicable).
- The date the screens were last updated, so users know if the information is current. (Tip: always include the year in any dates you provide.)
- A disclaimer(3).
- A copyright(4) statement.
For the contact information you might include a menu section called 'contact us'.
It's a good idea to include a link to your copyright statement and disclaimer on every screen as part of your standard footer or navigation bar.
Organising your screen
As you design your screen layout, keep the following questions in mind:
- As the user may need access to navigation information from any screen, where do you place it?
- Will it always be visible if the user has a small monitor? Need it be? Should it go at the top of each screen, the bottom, either side?
- Where does the main content of the screen go?
- Will the average user have to scroll through the screen to see its entire content?
- Where do you put the copyright symbol on each screen?
- Are the navigation buttons and main links always available without the user having to scroll either to the side or down?
The design of your Web screen should take into account the placement of these components. Test the site with people not involved in its design to make sure that it works efficiently and intuitively.
'Intuitive' is a word you will hear often in website design. It's a bit of a misnomer - but what it means in this context is that someone with little experience of the Web would be able to find the information they want about your organisation or its activities on your website.
You need to test your website to ensure it does work this way. Test it out with people who are not experienced Net surfers as well as those who spend a lot of time online.
Should you use frames?
Frames(5)
are parts of a Web screen that can act almost like independent parts
of a browser application. You can therefore load a different part of
your site into a frame, or even someone else's site into that frame,
while keeping the rest of the screen stable with other information.
An example of a cultural website which uses frames is the
National Gallery of Australia(6).
Frames are popular on websites, but this does not necessarily mean you should use them, as there are some disadvantages:
- There are implications for accessibility for users with special needs.
For example, voice readers will find it difficult to speak the information in a meaningful way if the screen is composed of a number of different HTML files in different panes of the frameset.
- There are copyright implications in loading information from another site into your frame subset.
Some website developers will take issue with you if you display their content in your frameset, particularly if it makes their material appear to be yours.
- Setting bookmarks and providing direct links to particular pages within a frameset is confusing and difficult.
Although you may be able to go directly to a particular page or screen that forms part of a frameset, you will lose the surrounding files in the frameset. Most often, this means losing the navigation and the branding for your pages.
- Users with small screens may not be able to see your content easily.
Frames usually take up more screen real estate than non-frames solutions. Usually developers of sites with frames put the navigation down the left hand side of the screen, some branding at the top, and leave the bottom right of the screen for the actual content. Users with small screens may have to scroll down and to the right to see this information.
- Not all browsers support frames.
If your site is frames-based, and you want people with browsers that don't support frames to access your site, you will have to provide alternative, non-frames' screens for them to access, or include HTML code for non-frames' browsers in all of your frames' screens. Maintaining and updating the content of your site can quickly become confusing.
Your email address
Your email address should be on your website where users can find it easily. People will expect to be able to get in touch with you this way.
If they have a question about the opening times of your exhibition, or they want to arrange a purchase from your gift shop with their credit card, they are more likely to contact you by email than another way. Particularly if they are interstate or outside Australia.
Email can be answered automatically by your server. This very useful feature requires no intervention from you apart from setting it up. For example, every time the words 'opening times' appear in the body of an email message, a reply can be sent automatically with a list of opening times for your organisation. You may want to monitor the operation of a service such as this to ensure that there are no unexpected outcomes that cause some annoyance to those involved.
For example, it can be irritating for users who ask a series of questions to get an automated reply which only deals with some of their queries.
Another useful tip about email is to use generic email addresses which remain constant and can be published on brochures and letterheads but which can be re-routed as individual staff members' responsibilities change or they move on.
These might take the form of info@isp.com.au, mail@isp.com.au, sales@isp.com.au, for example.
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References
- Navigation by Builder.com http://builder.cnet.com/webbuilding/0-7392.html
- Our Australian cultural search engine http://culture.gov.au/
- Guide 7 screen 14 http://culture.gov.au/resources/guides/g7/s14.htm
- Guide 7 screen 13 http://culture.gov.au/resources/guides/g7/s13.htm
- Frames by Builder.com http://builder.search.com/search?tag=st.bl.sr.srch.design&channel=37&cat=178&q=frames
- National Gallery of Australia http://www.nga.gov.au/
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