For questions about the mechanisms you can use to help people find their way around your application or web site.
5
votes
3answers
420 views
On Android, how do you design a very shallow navigation?
I need to create a simple account section in my mobile app with 1-level deep navigation:
___ Register
/
Account --
\___ Login
On iPhone, I'm using a grouped table ...
5
votes
2answers
476 views
What is the best way to allow users to navigate through a large amount of information on a website that is categorised in numerous ways?
As a web developer, I'm often given designs that look good from the web designer, but don't necessarily function as well as they should. This is especially true for navigation elements, increasingly ...
5
votes
3answers
115 views
Why do we always need to integrate search with structure?
Jakob Nielsen posted in May 2009 an article called “Top 10 Information Architecture Mistakes” where he states that mistake no 2 is not having an integrated search with the structure of the site. I’ve ...
5
votes
2answers
285 views
drop down navigation for web/mobile
I'm in the process of a website redesign and I'm not really sure what to do with the navigation. The goals of the redesign are to simplify the site and make it more mobile friendly.
The existing site ...
5
votes
5answers
618 views
Pros and cons of a Single Page site versus a Multi page site
I am working on trying to re-design the site for the agency I work for and a recommendation was made that we should move to a single page site with a vertical scroll which which walks through all the ...
5
votes
4answers
138 views
How to make similar screens more distinguishable?
I'm designing a user interface for a Flash-based enterprise-level business application. I am restricted to using a corporate theme, so have limited ability to play with colors and so on. The ...
5
votes
3answers
231 views
Kiosk and back button
I'm designing a kiosk app, we have 2 navigation elements; 1 button for the main menu and 1 for 'back'.
So my question is: When should we show the back button?
For example, after selecting a menu ...
5
votes
2answers
136 views
Is Tab Bar based iOS Design for feed driven apps a better UX?
Working on a feed driven iOS application and wondering peoples thoughts on Tab Bar driven iOS design for feed based apps. There is a large amount of evidence that supports the well integrated use of ...
5
votes
3answers
126 views
Are navigationbars fading into sidebars?
Several popular sites are moving the navigationsbar to the left side. This mainly because of the evolution of the portable devices with smaller screen sizes and also the widescreen monitors. The ...
5
votes
1answer
273 views
Unifying Search and Browse
I am working on a part of a website right now. Let's just call it a Map for now. Every user has a map, which displays his or her interests as images in a grid. Quite obviously, the user can add or ...
5
votes
1answer
390 views
Responsive Web Primary Menu - Show as expanded or contracted by default?
For a responsive website where - at a set break-point - the primary navigation contracts to as single menu item that opens and closes the navigation menu (See the Starbucks.com site for an example) is ...
5
votes
3answers
170 views
Is it advisable to separate the landing page from the home page of a non profit organization?
I am helping out an organization on sparked which wants a landing page on which a video will be embedded along with some descriptive . However I am not sure if it is advisable to have a landing page ...
5
votes
1answer
886 views
Is the left or right side of the screen “more clickable”?
I'm in the second year of fine-tuning a homebrew CMS, and I've been going with this theory (which I imagined) that it's best to have interactive elements like submit buttons, back buttons, and links ...
5
votes
2answers
209 views
Hiding main navigation on secondary pages
What is an effective design to hide/minimize primary navigation to focus the user on secondary navigation, while still providing access to the primary nav?
(rephrased from below to make it more of a ...
5
votes
1answer
589 views
Global navigation - best practices
What are some of the best practices when designing global navigation menus that tie together multiple websites that have no common layouts, color schemes or typography?
I've looked at examples such ...
5
votes
2answers
198 views
Arrows for Navigation/Menu/Expandables Misleading?
When a user visits a site they are presented with some sort of Navigation Structure. Typically the arrow is a standard convention that alerts a user that when this item is clicked an action will ...
4
votes
8answers
498 views
Are breadcrumbs still in?
Despite NNGroup's praise, I notice none of the big players (StackExchange, Facebook, Google, YouTube) use breadcrumbs. None of the big ecommerce players either. Why is this?
Possible guesses:
Users ...
4
votes
3answers
186 views
Can icons improve readability on a navigation?
Our app has many tools and we have a navigation of about 10 tabs. Tabs can be re-arranged and this forces the user to find them by reading the label. Would icons make it more usable?
4
votes
2answers
2k views
Alternative to the tab bar (in iPhone app)
I have a project that has 8 different areas, e.g, travel, weather, etc. The front page is going to have 8 different icons; they will navigate to each section. I will then need something like a tab bar ...
4
votes
4answers
210 views
Navigation with or without sub-navigation?
Considering following site architecture, where each category has multiple products inside it:
/Home
/About
/Products/Category 1
/Products/Category 2
/Products/Category 3
/Products/Category 4
...
4
votes
5answers
524 views
Should a webpages header/navigation ALWAYS be the same across the site?
The question is, should the header/navigation of the site always be the same - no exceptions. Or should it generally be the same but allow for some exceptions depending on the page? Or is there ...
4
votes
3answers
431 views
Does the 'mile high menu bar' still apply to web apps?
In This Article from Joel on Software, Joel talks about how the easiest parts of the screen to click are the edges, and how putting menu bars at the absolute top of the screen increases usability. Can ...
4
votes
3answers
1k views
What is the purpose of a website's homepage?
The title says it all really.
While I realize the answer to this question is somewhat dependent on the visitors you're targeting, I'm wondering if there are any specific guidelines to follow.
It's ...
4
votes
2answers
146 views
Show camera feature on iPhone when there is no camera?
In my iPhone app I have a root view with some options, one being a "Camera" option where you can take a photo to send to us. My question is should I either
A: Show it "grayed out"
or B: Not show it ...
4
votes
3answers
614 views
What are some best practices in picking navigation bar background color? [closed]
I am using twitter bootstrap and I don't like the default dark gray background color for the navbar.
So I was thinking of chosing a different color. But being a programmer and not a designer first ...
4
votes
7answers
271 views
How can I lead users to and use an unusual navigation
So, I'm making someone a high concept website. Basically, there's one of those old fashioned television sets with circular nobs, like those on a stove, to change the channel. You turn the nob, it ...
4
votes
4answers
3k views
Alternatives to More Tab Button in a UITabBar?
I am working on an iPad application that currently uses a UITabBar as the prevailing navigation element. The application has maxed out the number of buttons on the bar and is now forcing a More ...
4
votes
2answers
190 views
Is it helpful to colour-code different sections of a website?
A design pattern that's been around for a long time is the tendency to use different colours to demarcate different sections of a website.
For example, in the BBC.co.uk website, hover over the main ...
4
votes
2answers
166 views
How do you decide which links should be placed in the primary menu?
How do you decide which links should be placed in the primary menu? Should you only link to the pages and areas that get the most traffic? How should you think?
4
votes
3answers
586 views
Categories or tags based navigation ?
I am not sure if tags based navigation would be easier for users. In our web we categorize software (like download.com) and categories maybe are hard to understand.
4
votes
3answers
184 views
Back button logic
The app works with some abstract items. Those can be shown in list or on map
Bordered button in list leads to map view and vice versa, bordered button on map leads to list view.
Everything ...
4
votes
4answers
212 views
User navigation icons or text based
I am working on a web based hosted CRM personal project which I will release to public ones it is done. My goal is to create a CRM with absolutely zero to none learning or training requirement. To do ...
4
votes
5answers
2k views
Using a TabBar with slide out side menu?
I'm working on designing the layout for an iPhone app which will contain three tabs. I'm trying to eliminate the tab bar if possible, but I'm not sure what my alternatives are.
I'm considering a ...
4
votes
3answers
2k views
Swipe to expand/collapse left hand navigation
My Android application has a left hand navigation menu similar to the Google TV left hand menu bar. I can programmatically collapse and expand it to make more or less room on the screen. In the narrow ...
4
votes
3answers
372 views
Adding D-pad navigation to an existing web application: Resources?
I have a web application (HTML5) which works well in Google Chrome with mouse navigation, and I am adding d-pad navigation support.
I have asked on StackOverflow about programming models for d-pad ...
4
votes
3answers
411 views
When to use previous/next vs. back/forward? (and what about back/next?)
Is there any standard recommendation on when to use previous/next vs. back/forward? Or is there any reason not to pair back with next?
To me, previous/next make sense to use as a pair when ...
4
votes
3answers
247 views
Pattern for navigating by typing text in a text-field
I am working on an application which has a very dense UI with lots of menu items.
Is there a UI Pattern for navigating to different screens by typing text in a text-field?
The keyboard focus is on ...
4
votes
1answer
222 views
Is it ok to have the secondary navigation in the right-hand column?
I've noticed this on thefader.com. my concern is that this is a uncommon place for a subnav and will be mixed-in with ads. further, our site is pretty content-heavy. thoughts?
4
votes
5answers
520 views
Scrolling vs. Pagination for a Mobile Order Form
Ok here is my windows mobile application for ordering system. As client requested i added a next page button (the button after the +). This turns a page with preferences of a product. However most of ...
4
votes
3answers
235 views
Disabling navigation links in a wizard style interface (but not visually), is this an accepted practice?
While doing research for a current software project, I have come across Ford's car builder web application. It has a wizard style navigation across the top, and disables future links until the first 2 ...
4
votes
2answers
70 views
In a website, how to make two segments of users follow the desired path
I was asked to design a website for a company that has two different segments: B2C (business to customers) and B2B (business 2 business)...
The company says both segments are equally important.
How ...
4
votes
3answers
81 views
When do you link to content within a page and when do you make that content part of your sub nav?
I'm working on a website where navigation is getting down to the fourth level. I'd like to reduce the layers of navigation by linking to content from within a page instead of making this content part ...
4
votes
2answers
85 views
Is it necessary to use titles on the navigation bar of an iOS app, or could I get away with displaying the logo all the time?
Within my app there are several views accessible from a side navigation pull-out panel.
Is it necessary to put the title in the navigation bar all the time?
4
votes
2answers
86 views
Unintentional link clicks in table rows
The problem
In a desktop application, our users browse a lot of tables. Some cells contain links. Link texts look the same as other cells', except from when hovering, when they turn blue and ...
4
votes
1answer
146 views
Is the browser back button still the second most used navigation feature?
In 1999 Jakob Nielsen stated that "the Back button is the lifeline of the Web user and the second-most used navigation feature (after following hypertext links)". But the web has evolved since then, ...
4
votes
2answers
608 views
Responsive Design, how to display two large navigation menus?
we are currently looking at redesigning one of our sites so it is responsive. The problem is the site generally has two large menu systems per page. One at the top as the main navigation and then a ...
4
votes
2answers
108 views
How do you decide between a topic-based and an audience-based main navigation?
Any hints from past experience?
Any best practices?
Any research on the subject?
4
votes
2answers
188 views
User-friendlier dropdowns with hoverIntent?
Is it a good idea to use hoverIntent (which introduces a slight movement-predicted delay to prevent accidental hover-offs) for user-friendlier dropdowns?
...
4
votes
2answers
94 views
External links and duplicate content
How one should link to pages that are outside the current domain?
Do, i simply make them target="_blank" and give them a different background color or add some icon to them to differentiate them from ...
4
votes
2answers
387 views
Back button (or similar) and breadcrumbs, or just breadcrumbs
Should a website that keeps track of 'Breadcrumbs' need to provide a back button, or similar means of returning to the parent page on each 'subpage'?
To give a visual example:
Here is my main page
...
