Is Your Site Easy to Navigate? Six Ways to Put an End to Dead Ends

Site navigation is one of the more important pieces to successful website management. Unfortunately, there are far more ways to do it wrong than right. If users can't navigate or even struggle to find what they're looking for, they'll move on with the click of the "Back" button - one of those nasty navigation buttons that works all too well. Site navigation doesn't have to be complex, even if you have a great deal of content across lots of categories. With a few simple best practices in place, you can dramatically improve how your site visitors are able to find information and continue interacting with our site.

1. Search bar

Probably the most under-discussed and under-rated feature that every site should take advantage of is a search bar. This allows users to quickly type in product names or anything else they may be looking for specifically. Make sure you check your own search results on occassion to be sure that the feature works and is easy for users to work with. Also, put your search bar in a prominent place in or near the banner of your website. The search bar sometimes gets lost along a sidebar, which can be frustrating for users who just want to find information quickly.

2. Horizontal navigation tools

A common mistake in navigation design is to put the primary links only in a vertical menu in a sidebar. A navigation best practice for modern sites is to use a horizontal menu bar at or near the top of the page. You don't have to put every link to your site in the navigation bar. The key is to provide quick, consistent access to the main pages on your site. If you have an "About Us" page, make sure that this link is always in the nav menu. If you have sub-pages, you can list these links within the "About Us" page, for example, or in a drop-down menu.

3. Common naming

Avoid odd naming of links to primary pages. While this might seem interesting, it confuses some website users and all search engines. For example, avoid calling the "About Us" page something like "Our Info". This could mean your contact information, your address, your "About Us" page - "Our Info" could means lots of things. But we all know what an "About Us" page is. So stick with the standards on this one so that your visitors can find what they need right when they need it.

4. Use arrows for drop-down menus

If you use drop-down menus in the horizontal navigation bar, include a visual cue like a downward facing arrow for these menus so users know a drop-down menu is present. It's annoying when you go to click on an "About Us" menu item and it springs open to reveal several sub-pages, but it's too late - you've already clicked it and now the site is taking you somewhere else. The same goes for sub-sub-menus. You know, the drop-down menus that then open up into another set of options? Yeah, those. From a navigation standpoint, these are fine, but make sure the menu has an arrow that points to the right so users know another menu is about to open.

5. Breadcrumbs

If your site includes multiple categories or a progressive experience (such as filling out a multipage form or a shopping cart), provide breadcrumbs along the top but below the main navigation window. This allows users to tell where they are at in the heirarchy of your site and can quickly jump back a few steps without starting over.

6. Logo goes home

And for those visitors that need to zip back to your home page, make sure the logo links back to your home page. This is just a common practice, but studies are showing that this logo link is used far more often than realized. A common example is after a user has placed an item in their cart, they want to start over and find another item. While many users tend to just go to the search bar or use the breadcrumbs, another prominent set uses the logo link to get back to the home page and start over.

Conclusion

Site navigation is very important and these few, simple best practices can make navigating your site all the more easy. Often it just takes a few small changes to make a big improvement, so get out there, review your site's navigation, and make it easier for your visitors to find what they're looking for.

---

The Myth of Multitasking

Everything in our get-it-done yesterday culture seems to demand a mastery of multitasking. In the age of the smartphone, you’re never without access to a phone, e-mail, social media networks and news headlines. At any given moment, you might have half a dozen or more windows open on your computer competing for your time and attention. A few minutes waiting at a red light becomes an opportunity to check voicemail and return a missed call from a client while simultaneously reviewing the agenda for your next meeting.

But no matter how much you think being able to maintain a constant juggling act of tasks is going to help you get ahead, in truth, it might very well be what’s holding you back.

Success is not about how many things you can do at once; it's about consistently turning out your best quality work as efficiently as possible. In fact, multitasking is actually a very inefficient time management strategy that can seriously compromise your performance.

Why?

Although our society might be wired for multitasking, our brains are not.

Although our society might be wired for multitasking, our brains are not. Trying to work on several things at once compromises your brain's ability to function at maximum capacity. Each time you shift your focus from one task to another, you risk losing information from your short-term memory. In the end, you might end up putting in more hours, not less, and producing lower quality work.

Multitasking is fine for simple, low-brain-power chores like checking your e-mail while waiting in line at the grocery store or walking the dog while talking to your mother on the phone. But for complex work-related duties, you should be focused squarely on the task at-hand, not trying to perform a mental balancing act at all times.

If you really want to boost your productivity, start by organizing your day into blocks of time where you focus on accomplishing one specific job from beginning to end.

Learn to excel at single-tasking and get more done in less time.

If you are working on projects that span more than one day, break them into clearly defined phases and set milestones for yourself. Each time you set one project aside and move on to the next, take just a minute to leave yourself a brief note about where you left off and what your next step should be. This will help jog your memory the next time you resume work on that job, and you can get rolling right away.

By learning to excel at single-tasking, you'll reap very real rewards: getting more done in less time, with quality and attention to detail that speaks for itself.

---