Navigation is what makes the Web run. It can come in many flavors: main menus, submenus, auxiliary menus, image maps, hypertext links, and other schemes that allow visitors to move from page to page. A well-planned navigation scheme lets visitors get to the information they want with minimal fuss. Poorly planned navigation leads to blindness, low sex appeal, and sometimes death. Even worse, poor navigation may upset site visitors enough that they will never return to your site. Beyond navigating between Web pages, a truly dynamic Web site lets visitors interact with the pages by changing the content after it has loaded. You must provide controls that permit that interaction. In this chapter, I'll look at some effective ways to create dynamic navigation that gives visitors maximum flexibility and lets you maximize the impact of your content. |