Chapter 6 is about how people look for stuff and how we can set up a simple navigation system to fit how people look for stuff. With Web Design, it’s good to use hierarchy when displaying the information. Traveling on the web to a new site is a click away. As a result, people often forget how they got there. SO… it’s best to use simple signs and symbols, placed in an easily understandable hierarchy. This way, the user never has to memorize the navigation, because it is simple and clear and right in front of them every time they visit the site. Examples of good navigation include: placing menus in common locations, using the same/similar design at the top of the page(unless it’s a form/home page), labeling the page the user is on, name of the company on every page, ect. It also talks about simple confirmations for when something is selected to keep the user focused on which way they are going. They recommend randomly choosing any page from your site and checking if you can tell where you are just by the info on the page. If the pages can help the user locate themselves every time, then the navigation on the page is more likely to be effective.
Here are some related links:
This one shows how to set up a good wireframe: http://www.gliffy.com/examples/wireframes/
This one shows trends and examples: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/02/26/navigation-menus-trends-and-examples/
This one has a few tips on web navigation:
http://briancray.com/2009/06/07/rethinking-website-navigation-design/
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