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Web Design
As people “browse” the Web, they “land” on a page and “navigate” on a website. To find their way around they need a “navigation” system. Navigation is as important for web design as for a real life drive: when you drive on a new road you want to see clear marked destinations, exits and parking lots. You want to know where you are and where you go. So do your visitors. Fail to provide a clear road map and they will go back to where they came from. Navigation should be clear and simple. Or better: standard. That means: don’t go around renaming buttons. Use “home” for your index; not “back to base”. Although this “back to base” is rather clear, not all the web users are in the mood for riddles, nor do they have the time to start learning your rules, your style, or your symbols.
There are three major types of navigation: global, local and hierarchical.
Business - All business/finance/loan/mortgage related link can be found here
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Computers - All computer hardware/software/peripheral related link can be found here
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Internet - All webhosting/webdesign/internet marketing related link can be found here
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Software - All software related link can be found here
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Web Design - All web design/development related link can be found here
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Web Hosting - All web hosting related link can be found here
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Web Promotion - All search engine optimization/internet marketing related link can be found here
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Web Resources - All other web related link can be found here
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Recreation - All travel/hotel/cruise related link can be found here
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Casino - All online gambling/poker/blackjack/roulette related link can be found here
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Health - All online pharmacy/hospital/health related link can be found here
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Shopping - All online shopping/gift related link can be found here
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Miscellaneous - All other links can be found here
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Web designers use global navigation for medium-sized and small websites to categorize the main points of interest. Hierarchical navigation refers to large websites – such as web directories, article directories, news portals and so on. This approach is somehow confusing for web novices: they cannot really find their way, especially when the navigational structure is not clear (some web designers omit important navigational elements such as “you are here”, “back”, “next page” etc.)
One important note about local navigation: it works great when you need cross traffic. You could use embedded links to lead your visitors to information that is somewhere else on your website or on a different website. But if you need to link to another website use a target=”_blank” approach that will open the link in a new window. That’s how the visitors will not lose the path back to your website.
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