A good way to resolve questions like "What should be directly linked from the front page?" is to think about the site from the perspective of users.
Analysing user types
Considering each type of user accessing the site, and each type of content, you can ask three questions:
- Will users of this type sometimes want to reach this content? (If not, go on to the next.)
- Starting from the home page, will it be obvious how they can reach the content?
- How many "clicks" (page links) are there between the front page and the desired content?
Revising navigation accordingly
Then you can revise your navigation so that each type of users can reach commonly-accessed content quickly and easily. Less frequently-accessed content should also be easy to reach, but does not need to be as quickly available.
Common revisions you might make are:
- Adding links from the front page (or section sub-pages) directly to frequently-accessed content
- Removing front-page links to content that isn't often used, or de-emphasising these links
- Adding cross-links between one section and another related section
- Removing cross-links to unrelated sections
- Altering the site organisation or the way it appears to users, to take more account of the different user types
Your own site
Group exercise
In small groups, examine each other's site navigation plans (from the earlier exercises) in turn. The group should invent a possible user for the site, consider what content that user might want to get to, and imagine how they can get to it using that navigation. This may bring out problems with the navigation controls.
