Site Navigation
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- soundsinsilence
Been doing some research in preparation for a project where we're revamping the client's site nav. I've found some good ideas and what not, but I'm wondering if any of you out there have something off the top of your head you really like.
Client is:
- retail
- mobile phone sales focused
- small marketThanks in advance!
- doesnotexist0
what does small market have to do with nav?
ssense is great, wish it was geared more towards thumb navigation though.
apple has a great pdp
- Just giving a bit of context. Didn't finish my thought there. It's a small market company (as opposed to a global entity).soundsinsilence
- ssense is interesting because they have their left nav listing of designers flow underneath their top nav. So there's text sitting on top of text. Intrigued!soundsinsilence
- sofakingback0
I advise not starting from a visual or functional preference. Determine the problem you are trying to solve, create solutions based on the information you have gathered to assist in your solution.
From this approach the solution (nav. design) will be meaningful and your decision should be easier than picking a style and trying to make it fit the situation.
:thumbs up:
- this, but also there are a lot of examples of great shopping nav in existence you can benchmark.doesnotexist
- Not starting from a visual/functional angle. Site catalog and architecture comes first. But I'm gathering visual ideas for later on down the road.soundsinsilence
- Right but before you start looking for examples... you need to know what you're looking for... so in very simple terms:sofakingback
- Whats it like now, whats wrong with it? What needs to be done to be successful?
Then you find examples of Nav.s that do that well.sofakingback - ^ what do you want your users to do? what do you want them to find?doesnotexist
- soundsinsilence0
Just looking to gather a catalog of best practices and other ideas for when we get to the visual aspect when we get further down the road y'all.
Google searches and other sites are returning me a whole lot of bullshit.
- sofakingback1
other than the usual suspects like: a.w.w.w.a.r.d.s, d.r.i.b.b.b.l.e, b.e.h.a.n.c.e... I would do research on competitors, or similar industry leaders.
But without some level of direction, you're just shooting in the dark, I usually have my game plan/solution lead and influence my design.
its tough with navigation, you need purpose, its not just pretty stuff. it needs to function for a specific goal or goals, visual is really secondary to the functionality. Thats how I approach it anyway.
- it's really the only way.doesnotexist
- ...if you like to party.sofakingback