On Oct 1, 2008, at 9:06 PM, Paul Eisen wrote:
There's a general perception that users *want* global navigation, but
if you spend any time watching folks on sites, you quickly realize
they are *only* interested in local navigation -- how do I get from
*here* to *where I want to be*?
So, any effort to add global nav to a page is a senseless waste of
pixels.
Jared, typically when I read your postings, I find myself nodding my
head a lot in agreement. Not so this time. Am I misunderstanding
what you mean by global nav? Research conducted at a now-defunct
company I worked for in the dot com days (Immersant) showed many
users commenting positively on seeing the full extent of the
navigation - both global and local. Users appreciated gaining a
sense of the scope from the global navigation, and, if it's
comprehensive, engenders trust. I wonder if that's changed in the
past 8 years. But even if it has, IMO the existence of the global
nav still plays a critical role in enabling the user to navigate
from "here" to "where I want to be" reliably and with confidence.
I know. People think I'm nuts about this. If you join that crowd,
you'll be in the majority. Take comfort in the numbers.
Here's the logic:
The Big Assertion: Users are looking for something specific on the site.
If the user is on the page that has their specific target, then they
don't need *any* navigation (either local or global).
If the page they're on doesn't have the target content, then they need
to find scent (a link with good trigger words) to that content.
If good, clear local navigation gets them to target content, then they
don't need any global navigation.
It's only when the local navigation fails that global navigation comes
into play. If the global navigation has great scent, then the user
will be ok. But, global navigation is usually pretty general
("Products", "Solutions"), so it's only a process of elimination if it
works at all.
If users are telling you that they really like your global nav, it's
probably because your local nav is really poor. If your local nav was
great, then the users wouldn't pay any attention to the global nav.
(Of course, if users are going to completely scentless elements, such
as Search or the Site Map, it's probably because the scent is
practically non-existent for their target content.)
I don't know how you measured that "users appreciated gaining a sense
of the scope from the global navigation", but when users are actually
*using* a site, the #1 way to engender trust is to get them to their
target content quickly (and make sure that content satiates their
needs).
Again, I'm in a minority with this opinion. I've only come to it from
watching a couple of thousand people work with sites. There are
millions who I haven't watched, so, I'm probably missing a big piece
of the data. :)
Jared
Jared M. Spool
User Interface Engineering
510 Turnpike St., Suite 102, North Andover, MA 01845
e: [EMAIL PROTECTED] p: +1 978 327 5561
http://uie.com Blog: http://uie.com/brainsparks
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