User Experience for a Better World
Advice: Breadcrumbs in a multi-hierarchical site structure?
So, I'm working on a site with tons of content. We've architected it to work for two very different user groups we've identified (unskilled novices who come to the site once or twice a year with urgent information needs, and subject experts who use the site repeatedly).
From a backend perspective, each individual piece of content (e.g. article, video, regulation info) can sit within several categories and topics and will also be given arbitrary tags by our client CMS team.
Breadcrumbs are doable, but may actually confuse, because the same item could appear in multiple areas depending on how a user gets to it...
So, should we go through a process to define a "main" hierarchy?
Looking out there, and ZDnet has a neat way of showing a sort of crumb-pile of related categories, topics and tags, for each item - although they also define a hierarchy too.
Are there other examples beyond the typical A > B > C > You are here style of navigation for content heavy sites that I should consider?
http://whitepapers.zdnet.com/abstract.aspx?scname=HR&docid=924681
Any thoughts appreciated - and naturally we'll be testing ideas on our real users too!
From a backend perspective, each individual piece of content (e.g. article, video, regulation info) can sit within several categories and topics and will also be given arbitrary tags by our client CMS team.
Breadcrumbs are doable, but may actually confuse, because the same item could appear in multiple areas depending on how a user gets to it...
So, should we go through a process to define a "main" hierarchy?
Looking out there, and ZDnet has a neat way of showing a sort of crumb-pile of related categories, topics and tags, for each item - although they also define a hierarchy too.
Are there other examples beyond the typical A > B > C > You are here style of navigation for content heavy sites that I should consider?
http://whitepapers.zdnet.com/abstract.aspx?scname=HR&docid=924681
Any thoughts appreciated - and naturally we'll be testing ideas on our real users too!
Tags: Breadcrumbs, UI, architecture, navigation, patterns, site
Views: 0
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by David Jarvis on -
Hi
I guess it's hard to say much specific without any inkling of the domain, but... I would imagine...
"Unskilled novices who come to the site once or twice a year with urgent information needs"
- given some Google experience, I suppose they are likely to use keyword search on the site, so that has to be pretty good, and easy to acquire
- they might select an article from a search results page but find it doesn't quite fit, therefore they need to look at the "outliers" to that article that kinda fits their query.( This suggest some kind of tagging; although have to be careful what happens when a tag is clicked - how is the list ordered etc? Also "similar items" navigation is relevant - but would category links or article title links/descriptions have more info scent?)
- they are less interested in "site hierarchy" or developing a mental model of the site, so breadcrumbs not necessarily a chosen way to navigate (see also http://www.uie.com/articles/breadcrumbs/)
"Subject experts who use the site repeatedly"
- assume they know their way around, why would they need to understand the hierarchy of the site if "finding" is more about keywords/metadata of each article rather than a strict waterfall hierarchy?
- why do they use the site repeatedly - is it to locate one item over and over again? If so there's probably other stuff you can do to make their repeat visits more efficient/effective (your last searches, your last viewed items, your last commented items etc)
- do the subject experts only look at their own favourite one/two sections of the site? In which case strict hierarchy pretty important to get them there in the first place.
Summary - I would look for opportunities to get both types of users from the currently selected article to other similar articles, rather than having them take a backward/upward movement, which tends to be driven from an inability to find, rather than a desire to "browse".
You could treat breadcrumbs, topic tags etc as a part of a site map device along with a site map style footer, which basically performs the function of "I'm lost, I reached the end of the page, now where can I go?"
Hope this is of some use!
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Permalink Reply by Warren Anthony on -
Thanks David, I guess I'm sanity checking an approach and your response and that article leads me to think I'm on the right track!
Your points about the two user groups are spot on too.
I'm already featuring ideas like previous searches, suggestions, things like this and things other people did along the way to give that "scent" to our different users, and I was feeling like maybe breadcrumbs are just not necessary. I think we'll try it and see!
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Permalink Reply by Rajat Bhardwaj on -
Breadcrumbs are of three types:
Location:"You are Here" ,Static
You are here: Home Page >> Baby >> Car Seats >> Infant Car seats
Path : "How you got here" , Dynamic
Browsing by: Mexican | Poultry | Main Course | Grill/barbecue / Summer
Attribute : Meta - Information
# 1 in Books > children's books > Series > Fantasy and Adventure
# 1 in Books > children's books > Educational
# 1 in Books > children's books > obsessions > Harry potter books
Recommendations
• Labels in a breadcrumb trail should be keywords users are likely to be looking for.
• They should be links to enable users to skip to desired content quickly.
• They should accurately describe the destination page they link to.
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Permalink Reply by Warren Anthony on
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Thanks Rajat. Those definitions are very helpful. I suppose the Path option is the true breadcrumb trail, but the Location is how it's more often done.
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Permalink Reply by Rajat Bhardwaj on
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Right Warren! Most of the sites use Location one as it matches their Sitemap Links.The Path option is a True Breadcrumb.
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Permalink Reply by Maarten van Heiningen on -
Warren
Does the website need a breadcrumb? Isn't the navigation structure enough? The problem with breadcrumbs styled as "following the real visitors path" gets to complicated for the site you discribed.
As you stated in your question that content is possibly shared over more then one area, I would suggest you go for the attribute meta breadcrumb. Also provide a very good searchinterface and search result page.
Good luck!
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