Design and Navigation College of Education（设计和导航教育学院）.pdfVIP

Design and Navigation Introduction Have you ever entered a labyrinth or a maze? Personally, I don’t think there is any fun in getting lost; in fact, most people leave the labyrinth with feelings like, frustration, tiredness, angry and even fear to come back. The nature of the labyrinth is so intricate that to escape from it without assistance would be impossible . To escape from the labyrinth, you will need a spool of thread. Similarly, some web sites seem to have the labyrinth as model. You are able to get there but you don’t know where to go, or where you are. The only solution you have is to make use of your ball of thread to find your way out. Search for a better and clearer site. The importance of a clear and easy navigation is a common sense among designers. Unfortunately, qualified professionals don’t design all pages on the web. Discussion Types of Navigation Systems Rosenfeld and Morville, 1998, present four types of navigation systems: Hierarchical Navigation Systems, Global Navigation Systems, Local Navigation Systems and Ad Hoc Navigation. Hierarchical Navigation Systems is the primary navigation system. However, this type of navigation restricts the user to move within the site just by levels. And, the authors observed that it often requires additional navigation systems. The figure below illustrates the hierarchical navigation system: Global Navigation Systems, this type of navigation complements the information hierarchy because it allows the user to move within the site laterally and vertically. The authors state, “The simplest global navigation system might consist of a graphical navigation bar at the bottom of each page on the site. A slightly complex global navigation system may provide for area-specific links on third level pages and below.” (page 54) To illustrate the Global Navigation System, l