Web applications: knowing where you are & not getting lost

It is easy for users to get lost on the Web because they have less structure than other applications. On the Web, designers can create pages of any length, with any number of links to other pages. If users get buried in information or lost on a side trip with no signposts or landmarks, they may find it hard to get back to what they were doing.

You can solve this problem by arranging information thoughtfully. On an informational Web site, where surfing is the main activity, it may be beneficial to link all pages on the site to all others, or even to provide links to relevant information on another site. In an application, however, you need to help users either complete a task, by minimizing distractions, or make a clear choice to quit the task.

Page design also helps users keep track of where they are. Use clear and consistent navigational aids – page names, logos, banners, icons, background colors – as visual clues for users. Arrange choices in a clear structure, such as a hierarchy or star pattern, so that users can understand at a glance where they are and where they can go from here.

URLs are important, too. Some applications do not have unique URLs for all pages because of dynamically-generated HTML or a bad use of frames. In this case, clicking the Reload button loads something other than the current page, losing unsaved data and causing confusion for users. To prevent this, write your application so that each page has a unique URL.

Hypertext indexes and help systems provide quick access to information. With the proper use of frames, a help system can show the help text for a task in one frame while the user performs that task in another. Likewise, an application can display an index in one frame, as shown here, and show the target page in another frame when a user follows the link.

Example of the index to a Web application.
A Web application index has page links instead of page numbers

Navigation in Web applications

1. Introduction
2. Basic navigation
3. Losing users and losing work
4. Separating the browser and the application
5. Lack of context
6. Delays caused by network connections
7. Conclusion

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