Home
>
Web Design
>
Tips On Effectively Organizing Your Navigation

Tips On Effectively Organizing Your Navigation

Not all links are created equal.

While all of your links may be important, you must sort and prioritize to come up with an effective navigation scheme. Here's what you should keep in mind:

1. Sort your links

Your links should be organized according to their relationship to each other. Any time you can find a way to divide your links into two or more categories, do so.

If you have more than 5 or 6 links, categorizing becomes very important. Try to find some natural groups. For example, suppose you sell widgets, and your site has this set of links:

Mini widgets
Multi-colored widgets
Discounted widgets
Contact us
About the company
News

Your major categories are:

Products
Company info

When you separate the two sets of links according to those major categories, it becomes much easier to sort the available information.

The simple reason is that a choice between two items is less complex than a choice between 6 items. It's the principle of dividing and conquering.

Take a look at the following site:

www.adobe.com

Notice the four main categories--Products, Resources, Support and Purchase. These four categories help visitors narrow down at a glance which area they need to look in to find the info they want.

Imagine if all of those links were lumped into one long list. How much harder would it be to figure out where to go?

Often, you might not have clear-cut categories. For example, you may have three links that all go together in one category (such as "Products"), plus several more miscellaneous links. Even if the miscellaneous links don't fit conveniently under one category name, you can still group your links. Put the three product links together, then all the miscellaneous links in a separate place.

2. Prioritize your links

Hopefully, you have some idea of what you want visitors to do on your site. Your site should be designed to drive a specific action--in other words, get visitors to do a specific thing.

Once you've decided what your primary goal is, your navigation should reflect it. The links that pertain most closely to your main goals should be emphasized the most. You need to guide the visitor in the direction you want him or her to go.

Prioritize. Ask yourself the question, "What is most important?" What do you really want to accomplish? (I'll give you a hint: "About the company" should not be a top priority link.)

Here are several examples of sites that prioritize well:

www.adobe.com

On the home page, you'll see three main links. These links are geared at attracting the company's major types of customers. All other links on the page are much smaller.

www.adobe.com

On this page, it's clear that the company wants visitors to click on one of their three product links: Publish, Search or Promote. The site does a good job of getting attention and guiding the visitor in a specific direction.

www.adobe.com

Right from the beginning, it's obvious that the company wants visitors to join one of their three clubs. All other links are relegated to the bottom of the page.

By carefully prioritizing, these sites are able to narrow down the choices and make it more likely that visitors will head in the direction they want them to go.

About The Author

There are 605.6 million people online. Can they find your business? Jamie Kiley creates powerful and engaging websites that make sure YOUR company gets noticed. Visit www.adobe.com for a free quote. Get a quick, free web design tip every two weeks--sign up for Jamie's newsletter: www.adobe.com

www.adobe.com

experienced cleaning professionals Winnetka ...

In The News:

Ahold Delhaize's cybersecurity incident knocked online ordering and digital coupons offline at Stop & Shop, Food Lion, Hannaford and Giant Food stores.

The Fox News AI Newsletter covers the latest artificial intelligence technology advancements, including the challenges and opportunities AI presents now and for the future.

Amazon's About You feature includes personality details from your shopping history, and some shoppers are finding hilariously awkward results.

Identity theft recovery starts with securing bank accounts, freezing credit and enabling two-factor authentication within the first 24 hours.

Apple's $299 HomeView smart display uses facial recognition to personalize screens for up to six household members and show live security camera feeds.

Domonique DuBose spotted red flags when a man on Hinge with 85,000 followers and a blue checkmark claimed to be a San Francisco 49ers player.

Your phone's location data can expose visits to doctors, pharmacies and places of worship. The FTC took action against data brokers selling this data.

Hackers targeted Danfoss refrigerator controls across French supermarkets, forcing chains like Carrefour and Monoprix to discard massive food stocks.

iOS 27 finally lets iPhone Shared Albums store photos and videos at full resolution in iCloud, but new items count toward the owner's storage.

A fake Facebook Marketplace text scam uses your real name as the seller to trick you into replying, and Malwarebytes warns even one response helps.

The Pentagon data breach exposed 2.76 million Social Security numbers and military records, raising long-term identity theft concerns for veterans.

Kodiak AI plans to haul IKEA freight on Texas highways with no one in the cab, raising urgent cybersecurity and safety questions for drivers.

Apple Intelligence in iOS 27 adds Extend and Reframe tools to Photos, letting iPhones generate new background areas beyond your original borders.

Microsoft's X account was hijacked to promote a crypto pump-and-dump scheme, exposing its more than 13 million followers to a scam campaign.

Scammers can combine your name, phone number and address with data breach details to attempt SIM swaps, phishing and even identity theft schemes.

ChatGPT Work, Meta Muse and Gemini Spark can monitor flight prices, sort your email inbox and track important deadlines, but savvy users start small.

iPhone, Samsung Galaxy and Google Pixel each hide a built-in tool that turns a video frame into a separate photo without any screenshot needed.

Operation KillSwitch dismantled KillSec's ransomware infrastructure, but investigators say a 16-year-old allegedly ran the entire cybercrime operation.

The Fox News Artificial Intelligence newsletter covers where voters will decide on AI data center ballot measures and Jeff Bezos' tech vision.

Apple's Impersonation Risk Detection in iOS 27 can flag suspicious activity inside apps, but the setting is off by default and must be enabled.

Federal Election Commission records can expose your name, address, employer and donation history once contributions exceed the $200 threshold.

Cybersecurity expert Morgan Wright says human skepticism remains the strongest defense against AI-driven phishing scams and voice cloning fraud schemes.

iPhone, Google Pixel and Samsung Galaxy each handle security updates differently, and one screen saying "up to date" may not tell the whole story.

Deborah Del Mastro heard what sounded like her daughter's terrified voice on the phone, launching a five-hour virtual kidnapping scam ordeal.

Hotel TV privacy risks go beyond forgotten passwords when you sign into Netflix or other streaming apps on shared devices you don't control.

Tips On Effectively Organizing Your Navigation

Web Design