What content rises to the top of a website? Certain things are decided by clients, others by process… Some things just come from the gut. Some of you out there might do extensive focus groups, card-sorts, and user testing to determine architecture. -That’s just never been our way.

Call it a symptom of budget, call it callous disregard for trusted methods. It is what it is. We just tend to think that people will follow the paths that are laid for them if the paths are intelligently lain. Trying to determine site navigation by gauging a consensus is like trying to decide where to install a gutter by watching the Weather Channel…

On picking paths
When you’re trying to determine navigation for a site, pick a person to be sympathetic to. Imagine a member of your target audience, and try to get to know them. Get inside their head. Come up with the five questions that they would have that might cause them to arrive at your home page. If you keep the user’s goals in mind, you can’t go wrong with navigation.

On Hierarchy
Nothing is more important than hierarchy. If everything is the same weight, then nothing will stand out from the crowd. Your users are begging you to help them determine the things that are most important. Do them a favor and help the cream rise to the top. In a site, pick the 3-5 things that are most important and put them at the top. On a page, add a headline, a call to action, and let the rest of the content be subservient.

If you use traditional methods to determine hierarchy like card-sorts, and the like, your emphasis will be muddied. If you ask an accountant, they will say the accounting related content will be most important. If you ask an HR person, they will say that the careers info has got to be dominant. The same will be true of sales, administrative, and management. If you allow internal staff to help determine hierarchy, you will have a site that is so conflicted on its goals, it will tear itself apart.

On Depth
How many levels deep should a site be? You’ll hear a variety of thoughts on the subject. The answers will vary from site to site. Of course a site like Yahoo! needs to be many levels deep. A site for a small law firm may not have more than one level. The depth should be determined by the content. While very large sites might be better planned by a true information architect, you can’t go wrong knowing one simple rule; Try to keep the depth of your site fairly consistent throughout. Avoid deep trenches, and shallow pools. Try instead for an even, consistent trough that allows your user to dive, and surface with ease as they explore the volume of your site’s displacement.

On digestion
How much can a user digest before becoming frustrated, irritated, or bored? The answer is probably less than you think. Keep your navigation concise, and limited. Keep your page content small, and narrow in subject. Many browsers today don’t support the kind of font rendering that allows reading on screen to be comfortable. People prefer to scan… You should be asking yourself “what is the penalty for adding this” more often than “What if I leave this out.”

When people are confronted with too many options, they often choose none at all. if you limit the options for them to choose from, and call out with special emphasis the ones you think they might likely choose, -you’ll have happier users.

On clarity
It’s easy to get wrapped up in an analogy when determining navigation. Whether it’s your companies’ stratification, or something more abstract, it’s probably irrelevant to your users. They don’t care what your departments are called, or what they do… Your users just want to find what they’re looking for, and get on with their lives.

So, when you’re naming pages, or sections, be obvious, be simple, be clear.

That’s what stats are for
There are so many great statistics packages available today, there’s little excuse to not have at least one installed on your server. No gut instinct, no card sort, no method in the world is as good as allowing yourself the freedom to change architecture as you watch your users interact with your site. Even the best information architect is often surprised at how a site is used when it’s turned loose into the wild. The power to monitor and change is more important than the power to have focus groups, or the power to make educated guesses.

In short…
For most websites, if you avoid being too clever, stick to your guns, and become sympathetic to your users, you will be successful when planning navigation. The best route to success is allowing, and planning for change. The best way to plan a gutter is to watch the rain fall.