Designing navigation for most websites is a bit of a no-brainer. You show the parent, the siblings and children of the current page. Job done.
However, This model quickly falls apart when you are designing for mega-sites.
Organisations that often have mega-sites are institutions like the BBC, companies with diverse portfolios like Microsoft, Government bodies, higher education institutions and large charities that run many campaigns (like the World Wildlife Fund).
Some of the navigational challenges they face include:
- Each level can have many siblings making for very long navigational lists.
- Beyond about three levels the navigation starts to take up a lot of page real estate.
- On deeper pages the navigation needs to be supported by breadcrumbs so users don’t get lost.
- Users deep linking into the site often find it hard to orientate themselves.
- Users arriving on a sub-site can be confused by navigation relating to the mega-site and not their current context.
The list could go on.
These are problems that I have been forced to face almost daily at Headscape. The majority of work we do are mega-sites and so I have spent long hours considering the different options.
In my latest post for Smashing Magazine, I lay out these options and discuss their pros and cons. I look at what can be learned from sites like the BBC or gov.uk and even propose a new approach you probably haven’t considered before.
If you are responsible for, or work, on a mega-site then I highly recommend checking out this post.
Read my Smashing Magazine post on mega-site navigation
“Fat Man” image courtesy of Bigstock.com
