Why good navigation is essential to your site's success

Why do we need good navigation? When the reliable research company Forrester reports that approximately 50% of potential sales are lost because users can’t find information and that 40% of users do not return to a site when their first visit is a negative experience, we should feel a strong call to action to make sure which side we are on.

Good navigation is more than just the navigation (nav) bar. It covers all the link elements on the site including:

Graphic links
Footer
Site map intended for human users
Calls to action
Text hyperlinks
Well-organized information architecture

This last point -- a well-organized information architecture -- is the heart of good navigation. Good information architecture is characterized by sensible categorization of items and information, and logical sequence of purchase steps, easy access throughout the purchase to necessary information. At its simplest it answers the question: "If I wanted to make a purchase, could I readily access all the information that I need to make the buy decision?" If you answer without having done some simple tests, my guess is that you are among those sites losing customers.

Over the next few articles we'll outline a systematic approach to (a) test your current site navigation, (b) determine what needs to be improved, and then (c) offer guidelines for how to make the improvements.

If it were easy to build a site with good navigation, then Forrester Research’s recent review of 1,200 web sites (including e-commere sites) would have shown more than the very meager 3% passing the firm's usability test.