Design the menu based on your required content and design decisions made at the design analysis phase

The menu system you design should be seen as the doorways into the detail of your website. There are no hard and fast rules for creating a menu, but here are a few guidelines:

1. Build your website with a horizontal menu along the top, and at least one vertical menu – either on the left and/or the right

The horizontal menu should be generic, simple and help the visitor get to the main categories of your website. The horizontal menu should be static throughout the site – i.e. not change on every page.

Example:

HOME | OUR COMPANY | OUR PRODUCTS | NEWS | OFFERS | HELPDESK | CONTACT US

The vertical menu should be specific, hierarchical and detailed to help the visitor navigate back and forth to the specific pages. Consider a static vertical menu with collapsible categories. This is generally accepted as the easiest style of menu to navigate. However, it is your design and you can have dynamic menus different to every page if you feel this is right for your website.

Example:

HOME
ABOUT
CATEGORY 1
- subcat1.1
-- item1.1.1
-- item1.1.2
CATEGORY 2
- subcat2.1
-- item 2.1.1
CATEGORY 3
HELPDESK

2. Consider using additional categories not displayed on the menu to group your content

Do not be too concerned that every page is not accessible from the menu. The consequences would be that your menu would be ever changing and eventually become unmanageable.

Instead, choose 3 to 4 main categories, and their associated subcategories, and build in as many other categories as you like that can be linked into these main categories as ‘related items’. The ‘related items’ can be an additional menu or list of links displayed in the right hand column.

Build in navigation links based on information architecture. Information Architectures are concerned with how the pages read, not necessarily how they are presented as attractive images

The web is active, not passive. The visitor is constantly making decisions on what to read and what to search. Information architecture is designed to support these decisions.

The information on your website is also time-sensitive. Most visitors are impatient and will give up when the desired information is missing or hard to find.

Therefore words, not images are the building blocks for successful websites. The common problem that is encountered with web design that is constrained by graphic design principles is that it inhibits the process of design based on information.

Use information architecture to help guide your visitors and keep them interested and informed at all times. What this means is that you must design each page with a purpose in mind and have links available that take the visitor to the next step in their line of enquiry.

This can be achieved by having a related links section, a reference section and easy to see links to the main areas of the site.

7) Use persuasive architecture to control the flow to the desired result – the enquiry form

Consider persuasive architecture at work in a supermarket. By carefully designing the navigability of the store, it can make a significant impact on sales. In a typical supermarket, the everyday necessities such as milk are hidden in the middle of the store, the beer and wine are far away at the back, and the wonderful smell of fresh bread from the site bakery is also at the back.

In the supermarket, your path has been decided for you by persuasive techniques that encourage you to steer yourself around the special offers and luxury goods to get to the products you came in to buy. Whenever you go shopping, the chances are that you’ll go home with more than you came for – and be glad of it!

In order for you to create an effective persuasive architecture, perform a customer analysis on your business. You can then determine and prioritise the benefits you offer. Customer analysis assumes the role of the customer and determines the responses required for anticipated questions or requirements.

Your collection of written articles will be a combination of informative and persuasive copy. If you have an ideal path set for your visitors, then whenever they steer away from this path, you can persuade them back using persuasive articles with appropriate links that help to navigate them to your objective end-point ie. the enquiry form.

Further Info

Call to Action