Section 7.3. Browser Navigation Features

7.3. Browser Navigation Features

When designing a navigation system, it is important to consider the environment in which the system will exist. On the Web, people use web browsers such as Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Internet Explorer to move around and view web sites. These browsers sport many built-in navigation features.

Open URL allows direct access to any page on a web site. Back and Forward provide a bidirectional backtracking capability. The History menu allows random access to pages visited during the current session, and Bookmark or Favorites enables users to save the location of specific pages for future reference. Web browsers also go beyond the Back button to support a "bread crumbs" feature by color-coding hypertext links. By default, unvisited hypertext links are one color and visited hypertext links are another. This feature helps users see where they have and haven't been and can help them to retrace their steps through a web site.

Finally, web browsers allow for a prospective view that can influence how users navigate. As the user passes the cursor over a hypertext link, the destination URL appears at the bottom of the browser window, hinting at the nature of that content. A good example is shown in Figure 7-3, where the cursor is positioned over "Pricing." The prospective view window at the bottom shows the URL of that page. If files and directories have been carefully labeled, prospective view gives the user context within the content hierarchy. If the hypertext link leads to a web site on another server, prospective view provides the user with basic information about this offsite destination.

Figure 7-3. Prospective view is built into the browser

Much research, analysis, and testing has been invested in the design of these browser-based navigation features. However, it is remarkable how frequently site designers unwittingly override or corrupt these navigation features. The most common design crimes are:

• Cluelessly modifying the visited/unvisited link colors

• Killing the Back button

• Crippling the Bookmark feature

Should you plan to commit any of these grave transgressions, make sure you've got a really good reason or an even better lawyer.