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Home > Guidelines > 6. Make meaningful menus!. > 6c. Offer multiple routes to the same information. |
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6c. Offer multiple routes to the same information.
The same site can bring users to product descriptions through menus that let people identify their interests in different ways. For instance, an online music site allows you to browse menus showing
The same product may appear at the bottom of each of these menu chains. |
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Diagram
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BackgroundProvide several different representations of the information. —NCSA (1996) The more access mechanisms, the better.—Hoffman (1996) Provide different site paths to facilitate different shopping strategies. … Provide links to shopping pages from a variety of other pages and sites. —IBM (1999) You need to stop thinking of your Web pages as static files on a server and more like a collection of scripts and intelligent content that can figure out how to display itself correctly. —Veen(2001) See bibliography: Bushell (1995), Hoffman (1996), NCSA (1996), Veen (2001). Original Only one way to find a toy, by locating it under its type (dolls, models, games, so on): Products Revised 8 ways to find a toy |
Other ways to make your menus meaningful: 6a. Think of a heading as an object you reuse many times. 6b. Write each menu so it offers a meaningful structure. 6d. Write and display several levels at once. 6e. When users arrive at the target, make it obvious. 6f. Confirm the location by showing its position in the hierarchy. Resources on menus |
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Don't make me take an ax to your menu! |
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