Humans feel more comfortable when they know what to expect. They’re more relaxed within familiar surroundings. With a little planning it’s possible to make them feel right at Home on each and every page of a website.
Drop menus exist by default in the upper right corner of most core TNG pages. These menus organize links to other core pages for easy access by the user under the three categories titled “Find”, Media” and Info” as shown:
Navigational consistency is important when planning the overall User Interface of a site as it minimizes confusion through familiarity. New users are less frustrated making their way through a new website when they can easily determine how to properly navigate the way to preferred content quickly and with minimal effort.
Once a user becomes confident of navigating as expected, finding content becomes less of a chore and concentration can be focused on the information presented. For most genealogists, providing information to visitors arriving from any where in the world is a primary reason for maintaining a Family History website.
Since the drop menus already exist on most TNG core pages, a User will become familiar with the order of the links in each category and expect to find a similar category grouping order no matter what page is being viewed.
When designing custom pages, and in particular the Home page, similar grouping order can be used to establishing site-wide navigational consistency for the User. With a little planning it’s possible to make the User feel right at Home on each and every page of a website.
