Ok, I did attempt a Shakespearian mash up but it didn’t really work.
So, Amazon and Paypal killed of their side navigation a while ago and the subject came up as one of my clients competitors has header based navigation and its doing quite well for them. They also have a ‘who are you shopping for’ style category tree.
His client base are pretty well honed web users and it was decided to free up website real estate by removing the left hand side navigation – well at least on the home page.
We all know that eye tracking studies have shown us the user is more likely in a shopping environment to view the header first, the scan the first few sections of the middle text then most likely over to the left hand side. Which does indicate that even though header navigation is best, the left hand side still has life in it.
So what advantages does having header navigation give us in a retail environment?
1. Free’s up homepage retail space for offers, promotions and the like.
2. User responsive and dynamic – header navigation would often include dropdowns and active sections – who doesn’t like a fancy drop down nav eh?
3. Horizontal navigation structures tend to have provide a more streamlined compact experience for users – more user focused.
4. Compacting the navigation limits the user to preform the task in hand – find the item/category they had in mind when they landed on your site!
5. Vertical category structures allow us to get carried away and forget the user experience.
Desktop applications have been getting us used to header based user controls for a while, the line is blurring between desktop and online. Users have come to expect the top of a website or application to provide pathways to the most important sections of the site and critical functionality like search.
Sites that use header based navigation to full effect? eBay and Apple to name a few! – But eBay still returns to add in side navigation once the user has chosen their direction from the home page. Not everything can always go in your header navigation, there is not enough room!
So draw your users initially to your header based navigation and quickly get them to where they want to be, you have roughly a second or two to get your customer to perform the desired call to action – so no time to waste getting them to read down a foot long left hand side category list!
