Nav Bars: Don't Make 'em a Mystery

Ahh, navigation bars. Something so simple can so easily turn your website into a navigation nightmare.

All too often I come across a website and either

a) I can't find the nav bar
b) there are too many nav bars
c) the layout of the page is generally sloppy so I have to search for the nav bar
d) the nav bar labels are over-the-top "creative", so I have no clue where I'll be going when I click. If I want more information about a company, I look for "About Us" or "Who We Are" on their website. I'm not 100% confident that "Peeps" will take me to that information.

Check out the website below. What's the main issue here? There's no visible nav bar! I had to scroll down quite a bit to find it, and by then, I was bored and booked it off the site.


How about this one? Can you spot any problems?


The nav bar is (I guess) to the left, but is poorly configured and not clear, and there is an additional nav bar type thing at the top. It's jumbled, and there's just too many places to click it makes my eyeballs hurt.

What about this one?


Now that's what I'm talkin' about. The nav bar is smack right in front of you, you can't miss it. It's designed with a touch of class and obvious usability. I'm also particularly fond of the next example.


Though this company has a lot of pages to their website, they've configured it so each nav bar heading has subcategories, which makes it easy for me to find what I'm looking for, and it keeps things clean and simple (the key to any great website).

It's not important what type of navigation bar layout you use (horizontal, vertical, curved, etc); that all depends on your overall website layout. What is important are the following:

• Put your nav bar at the top of the page so your visitors don't need to scroll to find it.
• Make sure it isn't overlapped or crowded by anything else
• Don't use titles only you will understand. Nav bar titles should be clear, and make your visitor feel confident about where they're clicking and where they'll end up.
• If you need to have 2 or more nav bars, make sure you organize the titles appropriately, and that they are separated.
• If you have your logo incorporated into your nav bar, make sure it links to your homepage.
  
• If your site has a lot of pages, use a drop-down nav bar or have subcategories, rather than list every page in your main nav bar.
• Unless your site design demands it, try not to put your nav bar on the right side of the page. Our brains are accustomed to seeing nav bars at the top or left of a webpage. Again, you want to make your visitors comfortable.
• Make sure your navigation bar is consistent. Don't change configuration of your nav bar from page to page - keep it solid!
  
• Always remember, your website is designed for your visitors, not for you! Keep that in mind when labeling your navigation bar titles.