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paritycheck
Bipolar (III) Inmate

From:
Insane since: Mar 2004

posted posted 04-16-2004 07:29

HI everyone this is with respect to basic commercial web design. I'm not talking about anything artistic or so. Most commercial websites of corporations have their links - buttons both on the side of the page as well as horizontally aligned on the top and sometimes the bottom. This may see like a simple question but how do you categorise what links go on top and what links go on the side? I could use the help as I am new to web design and justgetting my feet wet

DmS
Paranoid (IV) Inmate

From: Sthlm, Sweden
Insane since: Oct 2000

posted posted 04-16-2004 09:27

Hi there.
I'd say that this a result of the content structure of the site.
As you build a site you go through your content and decide what belongs together and how to group this (the bigger site the more important this is).

These contentgroups is then the base for the navigation of the site.
In the cases where you have a horizontal row of links at the top, plus additional links at the left is probably just an example of such grouping of content.
Example:

horizontal links:
[ About us | Products | Support | Contact ]

If you choose "About us" the links to the left would then be the subgroups of info related to "About us":
- The company
- History
- Investors
- Financial

If you choose "Products" the links to the left would then be the subgroups of info related to "Products":
- Software
- Hardware
- Packages
- Customized orders

And so on, pretty much the same way you would work with a DHTML-menu with sub-layers. the basic idea is to first show the user the main groups of information, then make it more finegrained within each group. This way the user doesn't have to wade through a ton of links to find what he needs, you have already structured it for him.

On page 6 of this http://www.gurusnetwork.com/tutorial/wbtgd/ tutorial you will find more on this.
/Dan

{cell 260}
-{ a vibration is a movement that doesn't know which way to go }-

DL-44
Maniac (V) Inmate

From: under the bed
Insane since: Feb 2000

posted posted 04-16-2004 15:43

To expand or clarify slightly - the most important, or the most basic, links should go across the top of the page.

Trim down the basic sections of a website, and the 'lowest common denominators' get a main link.

Any links to the side will be either sub categories that change based on the section you're in, as DMS stated, or simply more varied subgroups that stay constant throughout the site.

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