Underground Web Designs Blog

When having a new website designed, it is important to give the matter of the site’s menus and navigation systems some serious thought. Navigation systems come in many forms, from vertical “Sidebar” menus, to horizontal “Top Bar” menus, to menus which take up a large chunk of the bottom of the page. Each style of menu has it’s advantages and disadvantages, which should be considered carefully.

The “Sidebar” menu is perhaps the most common. This menu runs down one side of the page and provides ample space for a large number of menu items. This can be great for sites that have a very large number of pages, as the sidebar area will usually have more than enough room to hold as many pages as you have. Also, since it is very common, most people are familiar with a sidebar menu and will intuitively understand that that is where they should look for other topics covered by your website.

The second most popular type of menu is the horizontal “Top Bar” menu. While slightly less common than the “Sidebar” menu, this style of menu is still more than common enough that most people will understand what it is, and will look for it if they don’t immediately see a sidebar menu. The top bar menu style does have some disadvantages in that the space along the top of a website is often very limited, which in turn limits the number of items that can be placed in such a menu.

One common way of dealing with the lack of space in any menu, but especially a top row menu, is by providing “drop downs” or expandable menus of some sort. While these provide a cool way of adding extra space to a menu, it should be noted that unless they are easy to use they will often be more of an annoyance than they are a help. Menus should be fairly forgiving in how long they stay open, so that on mistaken twitch of the cursor outside the menu doesn’t close it, but should also close quickly when the user is truly done with them — especially if they cover other text on your page.

The final type of menu is relatively new and fills a large area at the bottom of a page. This type of menu is arranged a little bit like a sidebar, but with several columns so that it is not too long and fills the whole width of the bottom of the site. Usually found on either blogs or website home pages, this menu allows a lot of information to made available in a very easy to use way. However, since it’s often located at the very bottom of the page it should only be used on short pages, or for unimportant details on longer pages. For a good use of this type of menu, check out the SecondLife.com homepage, which makes use of such a menu.

The important thing about your site’s navigation, no matter what form it may take, is that it be easy to use. If your visitor doesn’t understand how to find what they are looking for on your site, then they will soon go elsewhere. No matter how your navigation is designed, it never hurts to sit down a few people who have never seen your site and ask them to have a look around. If they immediately find and use the navigation, then you’re on the right track. If they have to fuss, fumble, or scroll excessively to find your navigation system, then you may want to re-think your design.

When you’re looking to have a new website created, you likely have some idea of how you want it to look. Maybe you have a few colors that you’d really like to see used, or a particular look or feel you’re going for. Or, maybe your business has a very distinct theme you want to portray, or you just like one of the competitors sites, and want something similar. The point is that few people go into getting a new website with no expectations whatsoever.

With this in mind, when you’re in the market for a new website, take a look at a variety of sites a designer has created. Are they all very similar? This could be a potential turn off — he/she may be unimaginative. Also, look around the internet and find several sites that catch your attention, whether for their look and feel, navigation, colors, or other feature; and make a note of them.

If you’ve done your research before contacting a web designer about your new site then you will be able to give them a much better idea of what your vision for your new site is right of the bat. This can dramatically lessen the time spent discussing ideas and mockups, and result in your site being finished that much sooner. It can also potentially save you money, if your web designer is being paid by the hour.

Doing your research when looking for a new website design may seem like extra work that the designer should be doing, but it truly isn’t. After all, the designer’s job is to make YOUR vision a reality, not theirs. If you don’t give them a solid foundation upon which to build then chances are that not only will the design take longer, but you will find that it just isn’t quite what you’d hoped your new website should be. When know exactly what you want, and have examples to back it up, however; you are giving the designer a firm foundation from which to build, and your chances of satisfaction are much greater.

The internet is changing.

In the good old days, websites were all there was. Blogs, content management systems, and YouTube didn’t exist. At this point in its development, the world wide web was simply a network of interconnected documents. This document linked to that document, and so you could follow the train from one document to the other.

Today however, things are different. The internet has changed to be much more dynamic and user driven. Anyone can post a video on YouTube, rate a site on Stumbleupon, or even edit a company document in Google Docs and Spreadsheets. The dynamic, social web is here. And with this new social web comes an increased reliance on standards.

Today as never before web developers are pushing the envelope of what websites can do. Huge social sites like Facebook and Myspace serve as meeting places where our societies can share information and people can connect. Games like World of Warcraft and Half Life 2 bring dreams to life in 3D virtual worlds, and the Blogosphere has revolutionalized traditional news reporting. As awesome as all these things are, however; the best truly is yet to come.

Up until now HTML and the languages that make up the World Wide Web have been very loose in their standards. Because HTML doesn’t show errors, it has been very easy for even unexperienced designers to get websites up quickly. However, that flexibility has come with a price. As every web designer knows, getting a website to look exactly the same in every major browser is no mean feat. Even worse, with an increase in mobile devices with internet access (phones, iPods, and PDA’s), the task of building a website that just works now mater when or how it is accessed has quickly gotten much harder.

And that is why standards are so important. In order to deal with the huge number of websites, web applications, and social networking platforms,  web browsers are being forced to adopt stricter standards as to what they can display, and how they will display it. After all, everybody wants every website they visit to “Just Work”.

For web designers, and those considering having a new website designed this is something that you MUST take note of. Just because it looks nice now, doesn’t mean it will look the same a year, 6 months, or even 3 months from now.

Unless your website is built to follow the same standards that the web browser developers are following, you may soon find that your site doesn’t work quite as well as it once did. And if your site doesn’t work quite right, there is a high chance that your visitors will visit your competitor’s site that does.

Standards cannot and should not be ignored any longer. Designers, get your act together and design sites that validate. Companies, insist that your website, or at the very least any new site or re-design you commission, meets website standards. And if you think your website is ok, try using the Official W3C Website Validation Tool on your site or your competitor’s site. You may just be surprised at how many sites DON’T meet the standards.