Website Design Pretoria
The purpose for optimizing the navigation of the website design in Pretoria, it’s to improve the user experience and lower the bounce rate. This translates in better user engagement, that could translate into sales and growth in revenue.
Navigation is the process of finding your way around a website—from the home page to the sectional pages, for example helps users find what they’re looking for quickly and easily, keeps them on your site longer, and helps them explore your site fully.
What is website navigation?
Website navigation is the act of moving from the landing page of a website and clicking through to another webpage. Essentially, it’s a user roadmap with signs that communicate where the user can find the information they’re looking for.
The whole objective is to assist users find what they are looking and simplify the journey.
Good website navigation design aids the user in their search for information, a product, or a service that’s offered by the website. Additionally, a good website navigation structure lets the user find what they’re looking for quickly and without difficulty. While we are exploring the website navigation topic, we cannot ignore the colour scheme and the font used in the website design as they also enhance the user experience.
Let’s explore the benefits of user website navigation:
User experience
We have mentioned this point above. Users are about getting what they are looking for and finding it quicker. Getting there with a fewer clicks, helps a great deal in improving the users experience. It is about meeting the users’ needs in a painless manner.
SEO
Easy navigation, for example mobile responsiveness, is used by search engines in ranking the website. Search engines use robots known as web crawlers to discover the information on a site. The information used in your site navigation contributes to the crawling, indexing and ranking of your site. Ultimately, a clean navigation design makes it easier for the web crawler to do its job and report its findings to the search engine.
Conversions
The goal of your website is to meet your strategic objectives. It might be to provide information to users or having an online sale. When you make it easy for your user to find what they’re looking for, you can easily guide them throughout the sales funnel and direct them to make a purchase or take an action. Additionally, they’re more likely to buy because you’ve satisfied their search quickly and easily.
Website Design in Pretoria
What are the types of website navigation?
These 4 types of navigation will help direct your visitors on what to do:
Research should be conducted in a type of navigation that should be used.
a) Horizontal navigation bar
A “horizontal navigation bar” refers to a list of links on a website that are arranged across the top of the page in a horizontal line, allowing users to navigate to different sections of the site by clicking on the relevant link, typically placed at the top of every page for consistency and easy access; it’s a common design element on most websites.
Key points about horizontal navigation bars:
- Placement: Usually appears at the top of a webpage.
- Structure: Contains links to the main sections of a website, like “Home,” “About Us,” “Products,” “Contact Us”.
- Visual design: Links are arranged side-by-side in a horizontal line.
- User experience: Provides a familiar and intuitive way for users to navigate a website.
b) Dropdown navigation menu
A “dropdown navigation bar” refers to a type of navigation menu on a website where a list of options appears only when the user clicks or hovers over a specific button or link, essentially “dropping down” a list of further navigation choices instead of displaying them all at once; it’s a way to present a hierarchical menu structure without cluttering the interface with too many links visible simultaneously.
Key points about dropdown navigation bars:
- Space-saving:
They allow for a cleaner layout by only showing a subset of links until the user actively selects a category.
- Hierarchical navigation:
Useful for organizing complex website structures with subcategories by allowing users to drill down through levels of navigation.
- User interaction:
Users typically click or hover over a main menu item to reveal the dropdown list of options.
Example: On an online store, the “Products” section in the navigation bar might be a dropdown, revealing subcategories like “Clothing,” “Electronics,” and “Home Goods” when clicked.
c) Hamburger navigation menu
A “hamburger navigation bar” refers to a type of menu icon in user interface design, typically represented by three horizontal lines stacked on top of each other, resembling a hamburger, which when clicked reveals a hidden menu with navigation options, usually used to save space on smaller screens like mobile devices; essentially, it’s a button that expands to show a full navigation menu when clicked.
Key points about the hamburger navigation bar:
- Appearance: It looks like a simple hamburger with three stacked horizontal lines.
- Function: When clicked, it expands to reveal a hidden menu with navigation options.
- Benefits: Helps save screen space on smaller devices by collapsing navigation options into a single icon.
- Common usage: Widely used on mobile apps and websites to access secondary navigation features.
d) Vertical sidebar navigation menu
A “vertical sidebar navigation menu” refers to a list of navigation links arranged vertically on the side of a webpage, typically positioned on the left or right, allowing users to navigate different sections of a website by clicking on the stacked links within the sidebar.
Key points about vertical sidebar navigation menus:
- Visual layout: The navigation links are stacked one above the other in a single column.
- Placement: Usually located on the left or right side of the webpage.
Benefits:
- Useful for websites with a large number of navigation options that might not fit well in a horizontal menu.
- Provides a clear visual hierarchy for users to easily scan and access different sections.
Factors to consider in Website Navigation
Keep your home page simple
Your message should be clear on what the website is about. It should not be left to users to interpret it. Keep the message very simple and not confuse the users. It must be clear what you expect your users to do. In particular, a home page as the landing page, should not be overloaded with a lot of features such as links, graphics, and buttons.
Mobile Responsiveness
Mobile responsiveness improves user experience as mentioned above, and it also contributes a lot on the website being ranked on search engines. Mobile responsiveness refers to a website being user friendly on all devices like is critical for a variety of reasons, the most important of which is that it should work flawlessly on all devices smartphones, tablets, computers, and desktop computers. Moreover, since customers never have to adjust their viewing experience to match the device they are using, this makes browsing your website more user-friendly.
In addition, by preventing your website visitors from inadvertently submitting sensitive data via an unresponsive interface, mobile site responsiveness protects customer data.
A lot of CMS (Content Management System) themes come with mobile responsive features. This helps in seeing how the website looks on different devices. Once a website is developed, it is important to check how it looks on all devices. Ensure that images are of great quality and optimized theirs sizes so that the website does not take long to load due to big images.
Consistency
Consistency is key for website navigation, and this means that all elements of the site should flow in a way that makes sense. This includes menu items, sub-menu items, headings and paragraphs, and images. This contributes to corporate identity, which ensures that things like colours, fonts, etc. are kept in a consistent manner. It becomes easier for users to identify your website as it has a uniform presentation.
A homepage layout that is consistent across all pages will make visitors feel as though they are navigating through your site from start to finish without having to guess which page they are on or scroll around unnecessarily. Or, to feel that they are now visiting a different website.
A hierarchical navigation menu will help you organize content more effectively while also making it easier for users to find what they’re looking for. You can also combine hierarchies with dropdowns or checkboxes so that users have even more control over how information appears on your website.
Wise use of white space helps create an aesthetically pleasing design and is also essential for organizing large amounts of text into a consumable content. Avoid crammed paragraphs and try to keep sentences short and easy to read. This will go a long way in helping users stay immersed in your content. And, reduce the bounce rate of the website.
Add Website breadcrumbs
Website breadcrumbing is a navigation tool that shows users where they are on a website and how to get there. Breadcrumbs are especially helpful for large websites, like e-commerce sites, and for users who arrive at a site from an external link.
How breadcrumbs work:
- Breadcrumbs appear as a trail of links that indicate the page’s position in the site’s hierarchy.
- Users can navigate back up the site hierarchy by following the breadcrumb trail, one level at a time.
- Breadcrumbs are often displayed horizontally across the top of a web page, below the title bar or header.
- A greater-than sign (>) is often used to separate levels in the hierarchy.
Benefits of breadcrumbs:
- Breadcrumbs help users understand the website’s structure.
- Breadcrumbs help users navigate back without clicking the back button.
- Breadcrumbs help users find information they want on complex sites.
- Breadcrumbs improve the user experience and encourage users to spend more time on the site.
Breadcrumb types:
There are three common types of breadcrumbs: hierarchy-based, attribute-based, and history-based.
Hypertext
Hypertext is an essential part of web design and should be implemented in an obvious way. This means making sure headings are bolded, emphasized, and placed near the top of the page where they will be most easily seen. Links should also be big and easy to click on. And finally, make sure all your text is easily searchable using keywords or phrases and this helps with search engine optimization.
Arrange Navigation Bar Properly
There are several ways that you can streamline your navigation bar. One way is to organize your bars by category, like Shoes, Trousers, etc. on ecommerce website. This improves navigation substantially.
Footer Design
Adding a footer to your website improves the design as all pages will have the same design. And, including website links on the footer, makes navigation easier and improves the user experience.
Usage of Call To Action buttons
Use a large font size for easy readability, and clear, concise language. Position buttons near the top of the page where they are most likely to be clicked and make them visually appealing so that people want to click them.
To Sum Up:
A great website navigation system provides several benefits including: improved user experience, increased engagement, higher conversion rates, better search engine ranking, enhanced accessibility, and a more positive perception of the website by visitors, as users can easily find what they need quickly and efficiently, reducing frustration and improving their overall experience on the site.