It doesn’t matter what information you’re trying to put across on your website if your readers can’t find their way about easily enough.

Website usability is big business. Just ask Dr Jakob Nielsen, who has made a career out of this very issue. But you don’t have to pay through the nose for scientific studies that tell you just what works and what doesn’t: not if you look carefully at your own reactions to how other sites organize their navigation menus:

When constructing your own site’s navigation menus:

• Keep site navigation clear and logical, and avoid making it overly complex.
• Standardize the navigation across site so the reader is familiar with the internal structure of the website
• Avoid inconsistencies in the menus or page designs that will make the site appear disorganized.
• Avoid creating single, stand-alone pages with no links or menus back to other pages.
• Ensure that all the links function on the navigation bars.

To make this easier I use Expression Engine (EE) – a Content Management System (CMS) that’s adept at running websites. In EE you can create templates for individual fields like navigation menus or sidebars. By constructing each page so it includes the navigation template, you ensure that navigation is standardized across the site.

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