ORGANIZATION OF THIS BOOK

There are three larger parts to this book. It begins with a tour of aspects and elements of web navigation, introduces a framework for navigation design, and finally explores some special topics of navigation.

Part I

Designing Web Navigation begins by introducing two basic areas of navigation design that you should understand before starting a project: human information behavior and web navigation elements. How do we navigate on the Web? How do we find information in general? Understanding these broader concerns can help you arrive at an appropriate solution for your navigation system. Also keep in mind that for any one problem, there may be a large palette of navigation mechanisms and navigation types that solve it. You need to be familiar with the tools of craft. Part I provides an overview of web navigation, navigation behavior, and some of the building blocks needed to create effective systems.

Part II

Every completed web project has a process because there is an outcome. Something had to have happened to get to the final result. The question is if the process was planned or unplanned, implicit or explicit, organized or chaotic. Part II offers a systematic framework for navigation design. Describing the process in terms of phases helps us focus on individual aspects and learn from the method more easily. In practice, however, the steps you'll take to create navigation probably won't be linear, but instead, you'll move back to previous steps or skip ahead. The phases presented here represent modes of thinking, not blocks of time on a project plan. Overall, web navigation design is about moving from an abstract concept to a concrete solution.

Part III

Navigation underlies most aspects of web design. As new design techniques, new types of web services, and new technologies emerge, good navigation design continues to play a critical role in their success. The last part of this book surveys several different contexts for web navigation: integrating navigation and search, creating effective navigation systems for social classifications and tagging services, and developing navigation with rich web applications.

ACCESSIBILITY AND INTERNATIONALIZATION

Two overarching principles of web design recur throughout the book: accessibility and internationalization. These are not afterthoughts in the design process, nor do they fit neatly into any one phase or activity. You don't create a site and then make it accessible, for instance. Retrofitting a site for compliance with accessibility guidelines is much harder than planning for it ahead of time. Instead, issues of accessibility and internationalization underlie the navigation design from beginning to end.

ACCESSIBILITY

Web accessibility commonly refers to building sites so that people with disabilities can use them. Guidelines and current practices focus on seeing-impaired users, and much of the text here is geared toward this group as well. But keep in mind that other disabilities, such as mobility or learning impairments, also fall under accessibility.

Assistive technologies are a class of devices that aid disabled people in using the Web. Screen readers are the most common assistive technology and receive a great deal attention in web design. After accessing a page, these programs read it out aloud in a computerized voice.

Accessibility is the law in many countries.[1] Most legislation for making accessible web sites points to or relies on the guidelines from the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) in some way. If you're interested in web accessibility, you should become familiar with this standard (see www.w3.org/WAI).

But beyond complying with legal regulations, accessibility is simply good practice. Sites that are accessible have benefits for others, too. In the real world, for instance, building curbs that dip down to meet the road not only help people in wheelchairs, they also help people with carts, bicycles, or rolling luggage. On the Web, clear easy-to-click labels with sufficient contrast help the disabled and non-disabled alike.

For more on accessibility see:

Constructing Accessible Web Sites, by Jim Thatcher, Cynthia Waddell, Shawn Henry, Sarah Swierenga, Mark Urban, Michael Burks, Bob Regan, and Paul Bohman (Peer Information, Inc., 2002).

This is a collection of articles on web accessibility from the top professionals in the field. It's a great resource for anyone trying to develop accessible web sites. Topics range from accessibility laws to technical aspects of making Flash accessible.

Building Accessible Websites, by Joe Clark (New Riders, 2003).

This book takes an in-depth look at a broad range of web accessibility issues, including specific techniques for implementation. Though full of detailed technical advice for expert programmers, it is approachable by novices.

INTERNATIONALIZATION

By default, sites on the Web have a global reach. Companies that previously had only a local clientele may now have a worldwide audience. Internationalization looks at the issues of designing sites so they are appropriate in a global setting, taking language, culture, and legal regulations into account. Where appropriate, I attempt to point out how issues of internationalization may affect your navigation design. Again, the hope is to sensitize you to consider internationalization as you go along and not treat it as an unplanned afterthought.

For more on internationalization see:

Beyond Borders: Web Globalization Strategies, by John Yunker (New Riders, 2002).

This is a thorough and focused book that contains a wealth of practical details on the internationalization of web sites, including various content formats, issues regarding character sets, and step-by-step guides on how to translate web sites effectively, to name just a few. Several case studies illustrate the principles in real life.

Globalization Step-by Step, www.microsoft.com/globaldev/getwr/steps/wrguide.mspx.

This is a very informative site from developers and designers at Microsoft. It includes practical advice on developing software for global markets, and many of the suggestions also apply to web site design.

W3C Internationalization Activity, www.w3.org/International.

This is a working group of the W3C whose mission is to "ensure that W3C's formats and protocols are usable worldwide in all languages and in all writing systems." The focus is mainly on implementation and technical aspects, such as the coding of characters sets, but the site contains some information about interface design, including navigation.



[1] See the resource page on the World Wide Web Consortium's site for international policies on accessibility: www.w3.org/WAI/Policy.

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