5 Best Practices to Improve your Navigation UX

Building effective navigation on your website is crucial if you want your visitors to be able to find information quickly and stay longer on your website.

In fact, navigation is one of the most critical aspects of any website since it heavily contributes to user experience. If your website's navigation is puzzling or difficult to use, everything else on your site is doomed to fail. The reason being, if people can't find what they're looking for conveniently, they'll leave your site almost immediately - which in turn increases your site's bounce rate.

Some people might say, there’s a ‘search’ on the website, which takes users directly wherever they want to. But you cannot trust the search alone. A study says, 30% of people head to the search box, while 70% of people rely on the website’s navigation. No matter if your website has the coolest features of them all, it would be of no use if the visitors are unable to find it.

Navigation is therefore a key element in any website design and should be given careful consideration to ensure visitors have a positive experience on your site. So if you want people to stick around and use your website, clear and user-friendly navigation is the key.

Here are some tips on how you can improve your navigation.

Stick to the Conventional Designs

Initially, you should think about sticking to a more traditional UX design because most of us are already familiar with that interface. Any new additions can be confusing for users who aren't expecting them. You can think of plenty of navigation styles, but none of them will turn out useful if your website visitors are unable to get a hang of it.

Traditional UX design has been around for a reason - the tried and tested design methods are those that have been proven to work time and time again. There's no need to fix what isn't broken, so UX designers stick to what they know works to create the best possible user experience.

Following are a few of the conventions that you can use to design your website UX.

- On top of the page, you can consider using the horizontal navbar.

- Use a logo that's easily visible in the top corner of all pages, and make sure it's linked back.to your homepage. According to a study, to visit back to the homepage, 36% of website visitors click on a company logo, so it's important that yours is distinctive and prominently placed.

- Now coming to the bottom, it is advisable that you use an informative bottom where you have mentioned a brief about your company. You can also add links to pages of your website like about us, services, etc.

By following web conventions, you will make it easier for users to navigate your site. You can deviate from these conventions only if your chosen method is engaging enough to keep your visitors on your site.

Create a Unique Visual Design for Each Level

Layout and grouping of links are key to creating effective navigation - users should be able to understand at a glance which links are primary, secondary, or tertiary.

The visual design of the navigation should be clear and consistent, with different styles, sizes, and colors for the different levels. If there is secondary navigation, it should be easy to tell which links are parent/child or sibling, and it should match the primary navigation. This way, you avoid creating confusion in the users’ minds and at the same time make your website visually appealing.

Use CTA (Call-To-Action) often

The call to action is an important aspect of any webpage as it tells the user what the next step is. This can be in the form of a button or link that takes them to another page, or it could be a prompt to sign up for a newsletter or download a file. Whatever the case, the call to action should be clear and concise so that users know exactly what they need to do.

That being said, CTAs play a vital role in any website as it leads to better navigation. Since these call-to-action buttons guide the users throughout your website, you should start using them at the appropriate places on your website.

Instead of discovering different types of content on the websites on their own, users like to be directed to the pages through CTAs as it saves them time.

Make sure to create clickable links wherever possible. For example, if you have a drop-down menu with sub-categories, you can create clickable links so that users can easily find more information on those topics if they need it. This will help streamline their experience and it also ensures that the users can find exactly what they're looking for quickly and easily.

Smarty use White Spaces, Color Combinations, & Visuals

Be very specific while using the white spaces as it can make or break the appearance of your UX design. While spaces are the blank spaces within your website. Blank spaces are not necessarily white, they could be of any color depending on the color theme of your website. To increase the readability, it is recommended that you have adequate use of these blank spaces.

Making use of blank space in the right and left margins, as well as between paragraphs, can help make your content more easily scannable for viewers. This, in turn, makes it more convenient for them to find out about your call-to-actions (CTAs).

Let’s talk about the visuals now.

Visuals better attract users as compared to the texts. Any kind of visuals such as photos, videos, gifs, etc, can entice customers quickly if they are appealing enough. Including these visuals on your website and making them clickable with the links help drive the traffic to the specific pages as well as make your website easier to navigate for the users.

Time to play with the colors now.

Playing with colors on your website can be tricky if you're not sure what you're doing. Use colors wisely to avoid overwhelming or underwhelming your website's visitors. Colors can help set the tone and atmosphere of your site, and too many colors can be overwhelming. Stick to a few key colors that complement each other and create the feeling you want for your site.

Moreover, colors can help you differentiate different content on the website. We advise picking one color that will dominate all your web pages to set a theme and make sure the color matches your brand’s logo. For blocks like the search box, you can go with lighter colors.

Make the Most out of Footer

The footer of a page is often where users will go when they're feeling lost or frustrated. If you want to create a lasting positive impression on your audience, working on your website’s footer is a must.

Not only the footer, but even the most basic and utilitarian parts of an interface can have a significant impact on a user's experience. Therefore, it’s important to pay attention to even the smallest details of your website’s footer section. Most designers use a dark color palette while designing the footer section. So, if you want to make it stand out or give it a unique identity, go with the dark theme for the footer section.

Furthermore, the footer of your website is a great place to add important links, like an email sign-up form or payment logos. If required, you can also expand the footer section to make it more sizable. It works well for users who navigate at the bottom of the page.

The tips mentioned above should give you a good starting point if you’re looking to improve the UX of your website in a short period. Hope you found the blog-post helpful. In case you come across any complications, feel free to reach out to our team of profoundly experienced UX designers.

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