Objectives of a Navigation System

Navigation can be broken into two primary types, Location
Indicators and Navigation Controls

Location Indicators

Location indicators let users know where they are in the
site at the moment. It needs to be borne in mind that users
coming from outside your site can enter at any page, not
necessarily on a 'main' page. They need to be able to
orientate themselves.

Equally it is important that users navigating around your
site have a clear idea of where they are both in absolute
terms and in relation to other content.

Location information should appear on every page of the
site, in the same place and in the same style. Location
indicators should tell the user precisely where they are and
this should be clear even to a user who has entered the site
at an internal page. The location indicator should be
identifiable for what it is and make sense in the context of
other navigation.

In simple sites a page banner - text or graphic - naming the
page will be sufficient. For this to work the page name
should also appear in the main navigation so that it is
relevant within the overall structure of the site.

Color can be used. For example a different color background,
contrast color or sidebar in each part of the site. To be
really effective the color change should be reflected in the
navigation.

Using ‘breadcrumbs’ on every page is a good idea.
Breadcrumbs show you a series of hierarchical links that you
have used to go from page to page within a section. Using
breadcrumbs is like leaving a trail of the path you have
followed. The breadcrumbs appear at the top of the content
section, just below the main navigation template. Each
element in the breadcrumb is a link to that section or
subsection. This helps in avoiding a series of back buttons
allowing the user to directly go back to the main section
page or another sub section. More importantly, it always
shows the context of the page that is being viewed and how
it belongs to a section or sub-section.