Tuesday, April 29, 2014

P2 Research



Unit 3 Reading Response


“Don’t Make Me Think”, by Steve Krug

Chapter six, Street Signs and Breadcrumbs, begins with the most fundamental need on a webpage; clear navigation. Likening the process of designing navigation to a stores way finding devices, it illustrates a clear picture of usability. Global navigation with indications of location through the use of state changes and accompanying visuals to support the location allow the user to feel comfortable. A site ID or logo will maintain the users confidence in their location. Utilities, such as search bars, are helpful devices, but should be limited in the persistent navigation, any more than four should be placed in the footer. The search results should be limited to the content of the site to limit the users confusion. Navigation hierarchy should remain clear and be limited in levels to allow for a clean design and simple usability. Page names placed in an obvious location; large enough to be prominent, and named appropriately are vital in creating a visual hierarchy. Page names offer the user a sense of location and eliminate confusion in navigation. Highlighting location in the main navigation also helps with a sense of location. Breadcrumbs, a list as navigation can aid in the process of finding what and where things are located and coming form. Tabs can be helpful as part of navigation to allow for ease of use, and easy to locate paths to information. Site Id, Page name, Primary navigation (major sections), local navigation (secondary navigation), state changes and breadcrumbs, and search bars are the components of solid navigation.