Washington State University

RSO Web Support

Navigation

Your site's navigation can either help or hinder visitors in finding the information they need.  Visitors should be able to find the information they seek quickly and easily without getting lost or confused.

Main Navigation Menu 

  • Prioritize Your Pages.  Most important pages should be first in the navigation menu. 
  • The Links in your navigation menu should have meaningful and easy to understand titles. 
  • The link titles in your navigation list should be descriptive of the content of the page it links to.
  • Try to group related information by using subpages or by putting related links next to each other on the navigation menu.
  • Keep the amount of links required for your page to a minimum. 
  • Do not frequently change the links in your navigation menu.  This confuses visitors when they come back to your website.
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Navigation Example Navigation Example

Linking

  • If your link goes to a different website, it should open in a new window.
  • A description of the link should be included so users aren't surprised. 
  • The link name should be brief and related to the information it links to.
  • If you are linking to a file, specifiy the type of file it is.
  • If you are linking to a file, have it open in a new window.
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Links Example  Links Example
 
Compton Union Building (CUB), PO Box 627204, Washington State University, Pullman WA 99164-7204 | (509) 335-9444 | rsoweb@wsu.edu