Web Design Tips for Navigation Tools

By Lisa Lopuck

Part of the Web Design For Dummies Cheat Sheet

In web design, consider the visuals when you include the navigation tools that take visitors from page to page. When designing web page navigation tools, you need to make them attractive as well as functional. These tips can help you do that:

Differentiate the visual design of non-clickable and clickable elements. For example, don’t use the same graphic as a button on one page and a headline on another. Or, don’t underline headlines and color them like links if they are just headlines.

Use visual design and feedback to enhance interaction and usability. For example, you can change an item’s color, size, or shape upon rollover. (The following image shows how a color change would look.)
Always place navigation in the same location on the page and don’t change its appearance.
Always label icons. Illustrations by themselves are not always clear as to their function.