Hierarchical breadcrumbs: As in the example just shown, these illustrate the actual
structure of the site and are independent of how the user actually arrived on the
page. This approach is far more common and usable, since it gives visitors a sense
of where they are in a site. (Ideally, a hierarchical breadcrumb would mimic the
URL structure??”e.g., www.example.com/products/cars/nissan/altima/2006/.)
If a corporate website has more than three or four levels of navigation, breadcrumbs will
probably enhance the usability of the site. As increasingly granular levels of categorization
are clicked through, it becomes less feasible to show every full level of navigation on a
page, and breadcrumbs become an efficient, contextual supplement that is easy for visitors
to understand and exploit.
Flash-based navigation
Skim any design forum and you??™ll quickly find heated arguments over the viability of Flash
as a website delivery platform. While no one disputes its visual wow factor, the technology
introduces numerous usability problems, not the least of which is the breaking of the Back
button, the inability to bookmark individual pages, and long loading times for graphically
intense interfaces.
Pages:
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199