Helping Users Navigate through Your Page: Primary and Secondary Navigation

published by Dan in Usability | Website Design with No Comments

Primary and secondary navigation labels are simply links that lead your users to the desired section/page of your website. The difference between the two is that primary navigation labels lead users to site sections while secondary navigation labels lead users to the specific pages within the site.

As an example, in our main page our primary navigation labels are HOME, WEB DESIGN, GRAPHIC DESIGN, SEO, etc. If you click on GRAPHIC DESIGN it will lead you to a page where you will find the secondary navigation labels leading to specific pages including Corporate Identity and Branding, Logo Design, Printed Literature, Advertising, Photography.

As you can see, in both cases, the labels are highlighted in such a way as too draw users attention and distinguish them as links. The text used is not only boldfaced but also had a different font colour as well as background colour for further emphasis. Note that while a larger and heavier font will sometimes suffice users still tend to overlook them so that it is simply better to change the colour of the background as well.

Another thing to remember when coming up with the labels is to keep it concise yet informative. Long labels are not effective but if you can’t shorten it two a couple of words or less just make sure you have tried your best.

Furthermore make sure that all of the labels lead to the right page. Users who do not realise that you labeled a section incorrectly will end up confused while those that realise the mistake will be irked.

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