One thing to consider when defining the navigational structure is the different target groups.
The other important thing is the stages of the customer life cycle.

What do I mean by this? Let’s go on the customer journey:

1) The first time visitor
The customer visits your site. He wants information about your products, prices, service and so on. He needs all this at his finger tips. Try to imagine all the potential questions a customer might have and make sure to answer them – and that those answers are easily accessible.

2) You are lucky
Your potential client has done all his online research and you are the lucky winner – that is why he is back. This usually happens not within the same day. So make sure that the returning customer is able to find the product again fast. In some instances it makes sense to offer a wish list or basket functionality.

3) The unlucky one
The product unfortunately did not get delivered properly. Or in the case of an insurance company - your client had an accident. So this is still the same website user but he again has totally different needs. He is rather likely upset right now and needs help and support fast. Make sure he can access it directly. And yes – in case the answer is a phone call – offering a real voice, without long waiting lines can increase the customer satisfaction and therefore the perception of your brand in many ways.

A good exampe offers Norwich Union. It is very easy to receive a free quote. In addition they offer the button “Existing Customers” on the upper right hand side where clients can “Make a claim”, “Manage their policy online” and much more.

Read the entire series:

Part 1: How to structure content
Part 2: How many navigation points
Part 3: Dynamic or static navigation
Part 4: Navigation and the customer life cycle
Part 5: Global Navigation

For all of you who are not sure what the difference is, let me explain briefly:

A static navigation is always visible and when you click on the first level navigation the items of the second level navigation appear and stay visible.

A dynamic navigation only appears when you hover over it with the mouse and then disappears again.

There are also combinations of the two on the market.

Static navigation:
The advantage is that after the user has clicked on the first level entry all the second level entries stay visible and the user has always the overview of all the other navigation points in that category. So if you assume that your users wish to browse within that category it is advisable that you give the user the overview.

Dynamic navigation:
The dynamic navigation has the benefit that you have not to give up any screen real estate for placing the navigation so you can full the entire website with content. As long as only one drop down opens it is usually easy to navigate. The user can also “preview” the content of all subnavigation items without clicking on them which can be very convenient. However, as soon as you have several sublevel menus it becomes more difficult to control the navigation with the mouse.

Combination of dynamic and static navigation:
An excellent example for a combination of the two is the website of John Lewis. The drop down navigation is even grouped in categories and after the user has chosen an item a static left hand navigation menu appears with further details.

Read the entire series:
Part 1: How to structure content?
Part 2: How many navigation points?
Part 3: Dynamic or static navigation
Part 4: Navigation and the customer life cycle
Part 5: Global navigation

In this series I will talk about different topics regarding navigation I have been asked over the last years.

Part 1: How to structure content
Part 2: How many navigation points
Part 3: Dynamic or static navigation
Part 4: Navigation and the customer life cycle
Part 5: Global navigation

First of all you need to define all the content:

1. your target group wants to know
2. is important for your business to be communicated

Then the crucial question is what will your target group be looking for? What are their expectations? Are there structures they are familiar with because all of the competitors are following a similar pattern?

There are several ways to structure content - By:

1. topic, genre, product groups
2. target group
3. activity
4. search patterns

1) Topic, genre, product group navigation
As the title implies – this makes mainly sense when you are selling products or services which can be grouped logically.

2) Target group navigation
This one is very helpful when you offer information that is of interest to particular target groups and the all need to find information fast and directly. You often see this on websites of major banks with navigation points such as:
Private Banking | Business Banking | Press | Investors | Jobs
Sometimes it is very helpful to offer this kind of entry on the homepage in case your main navigation is structured by topic. You see this rather often on university sites. See the two examples below:

3) Activity based navigation
This one is more prominent in software where often activities are more prominent than categories since users want to fulfil certain tasks.

4) Navigation based on search patterns
In case people might look in different ways for a product this navigational structure is suitable. It basically means that for example products in a gift store are searchable by price, by category and by gender.

Sometimes combinations of the above are the best approach. However, always make sure to label the categories precisely with a short verb and noun and avoid jargon and long labels.