There are many types of design approaches around the concept of web navigation. They can be roughly grouped in 5 categories:
Designer philosophy
The designer lets his or her creativity work in a subjective way. The website is built from a personal view of the world. This approach can be found in art in some degree; and the result can be loved by some, hated by others. It’s the technique that mostly works for smaller, design-focused enterprises. However this type of design is driven by personal interests and business goals may be overlooked. It can easily fail for websites dealing with large amounts of content or high complexity
Example Gallimard (publishing house in Paris) that I visited recently. It’s so hard to find what your looking for that not even its own employees know where things are
Enterprise design
This is one of the most common type of design. The website is designed around two main ideas: the need to please the boss and the need to involve everyone in the company. This may increase efficiency for site updates (each department is responsible of its own part of the site) but users usually get lost, confused and they get out of it quickly
Example India National Broadcaster Whoever visits the site will feel overwhelmed and confused. What the hell is PB (BCI) in the main navigation? Why are the job opportunities under the Business tab, the advertise with DD under Information and not the other way around? Everything is way too messy
Content-centered
Similar to enterprise-design in its symptom – the inadequacy of its structure – but this time the problem is content. Typically the content is grouped by so many ways that in the end, nothing can be found. The type of content available should definitely not be the only way to determine navigation priorities
This archetype can often be found on governmental websites
Example National Library of Medicine. No additional information is neccesary to describe the lack of orientation in their website
Technology driven design
This is a frequent one, driven by a goal to lower cost. The focus is on implementation and reaching a final product quickly. The navigation is driven by the easiest way to implement a solution.
Pre-made solutions are available at a relatively low price or free but they are designed to fit general needs. And often this means serving badly a particular need.
The final result is typically hard to use or to understand and in the long term not cost effective, as the savings in the development process are offset by lost opportunities once the site is live.
Example: Video production website. I wasn’t able to see anything on the website even though it’s built with the good old Joomla
User Experience driven design
Also called UXP or UCD (user centered design), this is the process that places the users at the center. Fortunately, it’s becoming more and more popular as companies realize its great potential. UCD defines a set of methods that incorporate user needs into the development of products and services. This approach reduces cost by focusing on what’s most important to the user and supports innovation by bringing up ideas on how to better serve user needs. All in all, most of the time it results into a competitive strategic edge over competitors.
The methods include interviews & observations before building the site, running different types of testing while building the site, and running some bayesian analysis once the site is live. This replace “guessing what users want” and even though it may seem costly upfront, it surely pays off.
Example Squidoo. It’s a successful newcomer that has been copied and copied. As soon as you get on their website you know why it gets millions of visitors. You just get from the first page what they are all about
* Read James Kalbach’s book about design navigation
If your business needs a website, iFoundries will provide web design solution.
Original Source:
http://user-experience.iterating.net/2008/10/5-types-of-web-design-find-out-where-your-websites-design-goes-to/
