Unit 3 Reading Response

Unit 3 Reading Response

When my wife and I were traveling in London, there was one thing that we could not stand: Their street-naming convention. It was awful. All of the street signs were on the sides of buildings (some of the time, they did not even exist), and most of the time, they were hidden by trees. Suffice to say, we had to ask for directions many times and had to have a map on us at all times. This being said, I love the fact that the author points out the same thing with Los Angeles. We need big street signs when we are driving and we need to feel safe with where we are going, and web navigation should be no different.

I love tabs and feel that I need to incorporate them more in my web sites. They are safe, easy to use, and very familiar, which is one of the subjects in the last chapter. Familiarity goes a long way.

In addition, the idea of site-mapping is very useful. This is not referring to a designer making a site-map for their proposal (which is something they should be doing, regardless); however, this is referring to users being able to have a “breadcrumb” bar that shows them exactly where they are. Much like the navigation bar in Windows Explorer, this allows users to not only see where they are at, but also allows them to use one click to go back to any point in their search, may it be one backward step or five.

The Trunk Test is a great invention, and I used it many times after reading it. I intend to continue to use it to make sure that my audience never feels lost in my site and that they have the ability to safely charter through the waters of my pages.

http://builtbybuffalo.com/
>A great and simple design for a designer. Navigation is always in the same place; there is not too much noise, and the user feels like they know where they are at all times.

http://www.fullyillustrated.com/
>This is a beautiful website that really illustrates how divisions and subdivisions of navigation can truly work together. Also, the simply animation that occurs during hover really looks nice, as well.

http://www.cognigencorp.com/index.php
>Great use of tabs. The hover effect really pulls out the attention and there is no mistaking where the user is at. Simple navigation and clear use of tabs.