How to find (and solve) navigation issues on your website

Making your navigation work harder 💪🏼

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There are many ways that your website can work wonderfully and of course, the converse is very true. There are lots of (simple) ways a website isn’t working as well or as hard as it can. Your website navigation is crucial to creating a brilliant user experience (UX). As well as being visible to search engine crawls, completing the circle by making your website more visible to potential visitors.

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You’ve got a strong homepage, it’s modern, clean, bright and tells your story just right. But your conversions just don’t seem to be happening? Have you considered your navigation? No, not only the menu at the top of your website, but your Information Architecture (IA) sitting in behind. And not just this, but how it is used, interacted with and navigated by your users?

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Even if you haven’t already identified an issue with your website it can be super valuable to test your usability regularly. Moments like; building a new website, adding, removing or structuring content can be times when navigation changes can impact how your website performs. And also can be a great instigator for testing and improving. There are some very effective tools to help with finding navigational issues, and with great data and insights shining the way to better sorting and ordering.

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What is website navigation? ╰┈➤

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Simply put, website navigation is the links within your website that connect the pages. The purpose is for your website visitors to find what they need on your site. And importantly it is also used by search engines to discover and index the content housed on your website.

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Search engines use links between pages to understand context and relationships between pages. Ultimately building a picture of what your website is about and who would want to see it, and why. 

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Whilst strong SEO is vital to finding users, it is always best to make sure your users come first. If your website only talks to search engines it is unlikely to really speak ‘human’ and do what it is intended, make conversions. Users first, search engines after.

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Let’s explore some common navigational issues and how great UX research can solve them.

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Your Information Architecture 🗺️

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Your website Information Architecture (IA) is always important to consider. How content is stored, ordered and found will impact the UX and the performance of your website SEO. Using a card sorting tool to research how users expect information and content to be sorted, stored and found can be vitally important to how effective your website is. Optimalsort is a quick and effective tool to establish where and how users expect information to be sorted.

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Building intuitive IA and making sure navigation, and menus are simple to follow will ensure your users are confident and comfortable making their way through your website. Understanding where they can find the information they need and progressing to the next step.

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As well as understanding the order of content with card sorting, combined with our tree-testing tool, Treejack, it can be incredibly useful to understand where users expect information to be found. Looking at how users interact with your website, where they look for information and where they get lost is all great stuff!

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Using these insights will keep them on your website longer, more likely to see the task through. And let’s not forget that search engines love it when your website is performing, keeping users longer with strong content that is seen as relevant.

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Content hierarchy 📝

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The order of your content is important. This can be how content is stored and the order of your navigation and creating intuitive IA. But can also be as simple as where navigational sign posts are. 

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It seems obvious, but there is a case for keeping the most important information at the top of drop down menus, and where you want users to take action, usually on your most important pages. Studies show that attention and retention are highest for things that appear at the beginning and at the end of lists.

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This is why ‘Contact’ should always be found at the top right corner, the last on the list and in a standard, expected location. Keeping this in mind when creating the order of your pages and what you want your users to interact with will inform your structure.

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How is your website used now 👨🏻💻

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Understanding exactly how your website is used currently and identifying areas that need to be improved will lead to much stronger user experience (UX). Usability testing should be an essential part of ongoing research for your website success.

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One of the biggest issues with website usability is building intuitive navigation. If your users can’t find their way through your website to complete a task, they’re not going to try too hard. They’re far more likely to abandon and find another website (organisation) that makes it easy. Great navigation should act as a simple to follow map from landing page through to task completion. 

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Using a research tool like Reframer can allow you to test how users complete tasks across your website. Following their journey from their first interaction through to task completion. The data will provide insights into how users engage, navigate and complete their tasks (or don’t). Where do they get stuck, lost or confused? How do they feel (even down to their body language)? How quickly can they find what they are looking for? And the next step?

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All great stuff to inform the design team to build an engaging, usable website.

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Homepage expectations 🤡

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Your users already have set expectations when they arrive on your website. They anticipate your website to look and behave in a regular way that makes navigation, and their decisions, easy. Simple design features, such as your navigation menu across the top of the page, with clear options. It is vital to make life simple and easy when it comes to navigating your website. 

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Creating an interface that looks clear, is easy and quick to follow will build trust and engagement quickly (remember the 2 second rule). Simple to follow navigation, including descriptive labels, can make completing tasks much simpler and quicker for your users. Guiding them smoothly through your website and ultimately to conversion.

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Confusing homepage navigation  🫣

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Your homepage is the hardest working page on your website. It’s the first place (most) users will interact with you and it is make or break. 

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Did you know? You have less than 2 seconds to grab users with a well designed, organised and simple homepage. If they don’t immediately know what to do, trust what they see and get started they will move on (to someone else).

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Increased bounce rate does the converse for your SEO. With a homepage that users bounce away from you are likely to see a drop in SEO rankings, meaning ultimately you will see less users!

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Did you know that 87% of people that find themselves on the right path after the first click will complete their task? Ensuring that when users land on your homepage they can clearly find the road signs, but not everything that your website contains. Your homepage should simply guide your user to navigate your site, know what to do and how to do it. 

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A cluttered, busy homepage with too many links will distract your users’ attention, confuse them and maybe even lose them forever! First-click testing will take an informative look at how your homepage interface is performing. Mapping where your user is clicking once they arrive on your homepage and conversely, where they are not engaging.

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This can all be highly informative in designing, re-designing or even removing clicks from the users journey through your homepage, and beyond. Using Chalkmark to test your users first clicks is a great way to get started now.

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Wrap up 🥙

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With a website that is intuitive to navigate and content that is relevant you will find users that are engaged and SEO that ranks!

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Get started quickly and simply with our range of tools to sort out your navigation.

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And, if you need some more inspiration to help improve your website navigation, grab yourself a copy of our Actionable IA guide that explores actionable ways to fix, refine and build better IAs.

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When we first think of a beautiful website or app design, we rarely think of content structures, labels, and categories. But that’s exactly where great design and seamless user experiences begin. Beneath fancy fonts, layout, colors, and animations are the real heroes of user-centric design - information architecture and navigation.

Information architecture (IA) is like the blueprint of your website or app - it’s a conceptual content structure of how content is organized and arranged to create seamless interactions. And as useful as your information may be, if your navigation is flawed, users won’t be able to find it. They’ll simply leave your site and look elsewhere.

So, how does navigation and information architecture complement each other to create seamless user experiences?

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Understanding Information Architecture (IA)

Information architecture refers to the practice of organizing, structuring, and labeling content and information to enhance the user's understanding and navigation of a website or application. It involves designing an intuitive, user-friendly, and efficient system to help users find and access the information they need easily. Good IA is essential for delivering a positive user experience and ensuring that your users can achieve their goals effectively.
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IA is often confused with navigation structure. Navigation is a part of IA, and it refers to the way users move through a website or application. IA involves more than navigation; it encompasses the overall organization, labeling, and structure of content and information.
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Three Key Components of IA

There are three key components of IA:

• Organizational structure: Defines how information is organized, including the categories, subcategories, and relationships between them.
• Content structure: The way information is arranged and presented, including the hierarchy of information and the types of content used.
• Navigation structure: Outlines the pathways and components used for navigating through the information, such as menus, links, and search functions.

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Navigation: A Vital Element of Information Architecture

Navigation refers to the process of providing users with a means of moving through a website or application to access the information they need. Navigation is an integral part of IA, as it guides users through the organizational structure and content structure of a site, allowing them to find and access the information they require efficiently.
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There are several types of navigation, including utility navigation and content navigation. Utility navigation refers to the elements that help users perform specific actions, such as logging in, creating an account, subscribing, or sharing content. Content navigation, on the other hand, refers to the elements used to guide users through the site's content, such as menus, links, and buttons.
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Both types of navigation provide users with a roadmap of how the site is organized and how they can access/interact with the information they need. Effective navigation structures are designed to be intuitive and easy to use. The goal is to minimize the time and effort required for users to find and access the information they need.
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Key Elements of Effective Navigation

The key elements of effective navigation include clear labeling, logical grouping, and consistency across the site.

• Clear labeling helps users understand what information they can expect to find under each navigation element.
• Logical grouping ensures that related content is grouped together, making it easier for users to find what they need.
• Consistency ensures that users can predict how the site is organized and can find the information they need quickly and easily.

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Designing Navigation for a Better User Experience

Since navigation structures need to be intuitive and easy to use, it goes without saying that usability testing is central to determining what is deemed ‘intuitive’ in the first place. What you might deem intuitive, may not be to your target user.
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We’ve discussed how clear labeling, logical grouping, and consistency are key elements for designing navigation, but can they be tested and confirmed? One common usability test is called card sorting. Card sorting is a user research technique that helps you discover how people understand, label and categorize information. It involves asking users to sort various pieces of information or content into categories. Researchers use card sorting to inform decisions about product categorization, menu items, and navigation structures. Remember, researching these underlying structures also informs your information architecture - a key factor in determining good website design.
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Tree testing is another invaluable research tool for creating intuitive and easy to use navigation structures. Tree testing examines how easy it is for your users to find information using a stripped-back, text-only representation of your website - almost like a sitemap. Rather than asking users to sort information, they are asked to perform a navigation task, for example, “where would you find XYZ product on our site?”. Depending on how easy or difficult users find these tasks gives you a great indication of the strengths and weaknesses of your underlying site structure, which then informs your navigation design.
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Combine usability testing and the following tips to nail your next navigation design:
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• Keep it simple: Simple navigation structures are easier for users to understand and use. Limit the number of navigation links and group related content together to make it easier for users to find what they need.
• Use clear and descriptive labels: Navigation labels should be clear and descriptive, accurately reflecting the content they lead to. Avoid using vague or confusing labels that could confuse users.
• Make it consistent: Consistency across the navigation structure makes it easier for users to understand how the site is organized and find the information they need. Use consistent labeling, grouping, and placement of navigation elements throughout the site.
• Test and refine: Usability testing is essential for identifying and refining navigation issues. Regular testing can help designers make improvements and ensure the navigation structure remains effective and user-friendly.

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Best Practices for Information Architecture and Navigation

Both information architecture and navigation design contribute to great user experience (UX) design by making it easier for users to find the information they need quickly and efficiently. Information architecture helps users understand the relationships between different types of content and how to access them, while navigation design guides users through the content logically and intuitively.
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In addition to making it easier for users to find information, great information architecture and navigation design can also help improve engagement and satisfaction. When users can find what they're looking for quickly and easily, they're more likely to stay on your website or application and explore more content. By contrast, poor information architecture and navigation design can lead to frustration, confusion, and disengagement.
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So, when it comes to information architecture vs navigation, what are the best practices for design? Great navigation structure generally considers two factors: (1) what you want your users to do and, (2) what your users want to do. Strike a balance between the two, but ultimately your navigation system should focus on the needs of your users. Be sure to use simple language and remember to nest content into user-friendly categories.
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Since great navigation design is typically a result of great IA design, it should come as no surprise that the key design principles of IA focus on similar principles. Dan Brown’s eight design principles lay out the best practices of IA design:

• The principle of objects: Content should be treated as a living, breathing thing. It has lifecycles, behaviors, and attributes.
• The principle of choices: Less is more. Keep the number of choices to a minimum.
• The principle of disclosure: Show a preview of information that will help users understand what kind of information is hidden if they dig deeper.
• The principle of examples: Show examples of content when describing the content of the categories.
• The principle of front doors: Assume that at least 50% of users will use a different entry point than the home page.
• The principle of multiple classifications: Offer users several different classification schemes to browse the site’s content.
• The principle of focused navigation: Keep navigation simple and never mix different things.
• The principle of growth: Assume that the content on the website will grow. Make sure the website is scalable.

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Summary: How User-Centered Research Elevates Your Information Architecture and Navigation

Information architecture and navigation are the unsung heroes of website design that work in synchrony to create seamless user experiences. Information architecture refers to the practice of organizing and structuring content and information, while navigation guides users through the site's structure and content. Both are integral to creating intuitive user experiences.
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In many ways, navigation and information architecture share the same traits necessary for success. They both require clear, logical structure, as well as clear labeling and categorization. Their ability to deliver on these traits often determines how well a website or application meets your users needs. Of course, IA and navigation designs should be anchored by user research and usability testing, like card sorting and tree testing, to ensure user experiences are as intuitive as possible!
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That’s where Optimal comes in. As the world’s most loved user insights platform, Optimal empowers teams across design, product, research, and content to uncover how users think, organize, and navigate information. Tools like Card Sorting and Tree Testing help you validate and refine your IA and navigation structures with real users, so you can move from guesswork to confidence. Ready to turn user behavior into better navigation? Try Optimal for free.

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User experience (UX) is the pointy end of website design. Great UX validates a lot of hard work behind the scenes, but poor UX will quickly render it useless. Why? Users are becoming more and more impatient. If they can’t find what they’re looking for, or interactions aren’t intuitive, they’ll simply leave as quickly as they arrive. What’s worse? They probably won’t come back! Thankfully, many businesses are recognizing the importance of great user experience and its influence on website performance.

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In this article, we’ll cover 4 key UX metrics to measure the success of your website performance: bounce rate, time on site, pages per session, and conversion rate. Captured by website analytics platforms, these metrics provide you with a high-level understanding of how well users are engaging with your website, and where you might be able to improve user experience. We’ll also look at the roles of navigation, content, and the customer journey, and how they impact overall website performance.

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Bounce Rate 🏀

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If a user bounces on a trampoline, they’re probably having fun. If they’re bouncing on your website, they’re probably having the opposite of fun. Let’s discuss bounce rate, and why it’s such a good indicator of why your users aren’t having much fun.

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Bounce rate is a UX metric that measures the percentage of users that visit just one page on your site before leaving. Essentially they arrive and they might scroll, but they don’t click anywhere; they simply leave. A high bounce rate means that a lot of people are doing this. Why is this (usually) a bad thing? Generally speaking, you want users to be so engaged in the page they landed on that they stay and have a look around. You want them to explore your other content, maybe fill in a form, watch a video, etc.

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There are a bunch of ways to improve your bounce rate, but there are two key things you should consider if you’re experiencing a high bounce rate:

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1. Content - Are users seeing compelling or relevant content when they arrive on your site? Are they seeing additional recommendations for content? Is your content organized in a way that encourages further exploration? Content is king. Ensure your users see the information they want, need and expect.
2. Page load speed - Is your page loading too slowly? Think of your own experiences with websites. It’s hard to argue with the fact that we’re becoming more and more demanding online. Too slow? Too bad. We move off to the next website. Check page load speed and improve where necessary to remove it as a barrier to engagement.
3. Navigation - Is your navigation intuitive enough to guide your user through your website? Analyze the structure of your menus and in-page links. Do the labels make sense? Have they been categorized appropriately?

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Bounce rates give you a strong indication of what your users' first impressions are of your website. You’ll need to dig deeper to find out the cause of high bounce rates, but it’s certainly worthwhile. Use the 3 elements mentioned above as your starting point.

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As a final note on bounce rates, we want to point out that there are exceptions where high bounce rates might not directly relate to poor user engagement. For example, users may arrive at a blog post that contains everything they wanted to know. This usually happens if you're generating traffic to a specific page from social media or search engines. However, if your home page has a high bounce rate, for example, you’ll want to investigate. So, be sure to keep bounce rate metrics in context.

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Time on Site ⏰

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In addition to bounce rate, you should find out how long users are sticking around in general. Time on site is the next logical UX metric to analyze. The longer users spend on your site, the more confident you can be that you’re providing exceptional user engagement and experience.

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Keep an eye on the following metrics to gauge time on site and website performance:

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• Average session duration - This is the total time that all users spend on your website divided by the total number of sessions. A session is defined as the entire time a person spends on your website. Therefore, a high average session duration figure indicates high engagement in the content on your website.
• Time on page - Calculated by the time difference between the point when a person lands on the page and when they move on to the next one. It indicates how engaging or relevant individual pages on your website are.

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So, armed with these metrics, what should we look for to improve website performance? Well, firstly you should look for some benchmarks. How are you performing compared to other sites in your industry? How do time on page figures compare with each other? For example, if some of your pages are getting over 5 minutes of time-on-page and others are getting 20 seconds, there’s a disparity between how useful, engaging, or relevant the content is.

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Even if your website is performing well, we recommend analyzing your time on site metrics to understand where improvements could be made. A great place to start is a content audit. This pulls together data from all of your content into one place where you can analyze what is redundant, obsolete, and trivial (ROT analysis). What’s driving engagement? What information isn’t adding value? Overlapping this audit with time on page figures can reveal extremely useful insights into how you can improve user experience by providing the most useful content.

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You should also shine a light on your navigation. If users can’t find their way through your content, they’re not going to stick around. Can you streamline your navigation? Can you order your content from most to least relevant to better meet user needs? Are some menus confusingly labeled? Improve your website performance by taking a critical look at the factors that influence time on page.

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Pages per Session 📄

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Pages per session calculate the average number of pages on your website that users access per session. It is calculated by taking the total page views and dividing it by the total number of sessions that have taken place across the same period.

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Pages per session is an important UX metric to track because it reveals how relevant and ‘explorable’ your website is. The higher the figure, the more pages your users are visiting during their stay, and the more engaged they’re likely to be. As we highlighted earlier with bounce rate, users will quickly leave if they’re not finding what they want. Therefore, in general, if users are sticking around, it’s a good indication you’re providing a good user experience.

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How can you increase pages per session? Firstly, provide useful, relevant content at every turn. No matter where your users may land on your website, they should be satisfied and gratified. All going well, this initial content will leave them thirsty for more. This is another great reason to perform regular content audits - to critically analyze the type of content that makes up your site.

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But great content doesn’t automatically mean great user experiences. User engagement might be high, but how are they getting between pages? How easily are they getting from one part of your site to the next? This is where navigation comes to the fore. And whilst menus and sub-menus are obviously important, we want to highlight call-to-actions and internal links.

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Cleverly placed call-to-actions and internal links pull users along. They sit there within the content (or below the content) urging them to learn more and search more. A good example of this is ‘related articles’ at the end of a blog. Of course, the key is that they should be relevant. Disrupting the user’s journey with something unrelated could put them off, rather than retain them. This is particularly true for call-to-action buttons - they should be visible and attractive, but not so much as to obstruct the user.

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It’s important to remember the goal of your website. Good UX is great, but there’s no point aiming for the highest page per session figures unless you’re getting conversions. Which, incidentally, is our next subject.

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Conversion Rate 📊

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Tracking conversion rate is the ultimate test of user experience design. Of course, there are a lot of factors involved in conversion rate, so we’ll focus on which elements of UX design can have the most impact.

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Conversion rate is the percentage of users that perform specific tasks you define. Conversion rates are therefore dictated by your goals, and in most cases, will include things like transactions, newsletter sign-ups, phone calls, completing contact forms, or downloading a white paper. Why are conversion rates important to track? Well, your website is a machine for [insert your purpose here]! In many cases, we simply want to increase sales or leads.

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There are a few ways to increase conversion rates. Firstly, if you haven’t already, review or build your customer journey map. Customer journey mapping is a technique used to help you visualize your customer’s key touchpoints, sentiments, pain points, and actions. It helps you understand how your user gets from awareness of your product/brand/website, right through to conversion. Every customer journey is slightly different, which is why it’s so important to understand. Fail to understand your customer and it will be glaringly obvious in your user experience design.

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Customer journey mapping leads nicely to your value proposition. Do you have it clearly defined? What is your point of difference? How is it being communicated? Whilst encouraging a user to explore and engage in your website is great, some users may be time-poor. Could you speed up the consumption of your information? Trial a short video on your home page or landing page, for example. You may find that it increases engagement and conversion rates.

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Increasing conversion rates can also be achieved by reducing navigation friction. Make call-to-action buttons obvious and easy to find. Ensure the readability of buttons and text. Perhaps your forms could be optimized, for example, you may want to reduce the number of fields required, or you could embed forms at the bottom of key pages, reducing the chance of clicking away. Form optimization can be a simple yet effective way of improving conversion rates.

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Conclusion 💥

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Tracking UX metrics is an ongoing task that ensures you’re meeting the needs of your users. As your users’ needs, demands, and expectations change, so should your website design. One of the easiest ways to do this is to keep track of your UX metrics for website performance.

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Bounce rate, time on site, pages per session, and conversion rates are some of the most revealing metrics. Collectively, they highlight user engagement levels on your website and give strong indications of where your UX design is meeting expectations, or where it’s falling short.

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The key strength of these metrics depends on how you interpret them. You may need to dig deeper into why certain aspects of your site aren’t performing well. Implement some of the research techniques mentioned in this article, like content audits or customer journey mapping, to find clues to the answer. The answers could very well lead to a significant boost in website performance!