Users can feel lost even within even a small information space when it is not well organized. The problem becomes even greater when you consider the possibility that people can arrive at any page on your sie t from any other page on the web. They may not always enter your site from the home page.

Information architecture focuses on designing effective navigation, organization, labeling, and search systems. It is an interdisciplinary field that draws upon the research and practices of information and library science, computer science, graphic design, and psychology. The role of the information architect is crucial to the planning and conceptual design/redesign stages of web development, as good information architecture lays the foundation upon which a website is built.

A Few Tips for creating a usable navigational system for your site:

Your Navigation Should:

• Be easy to learn.
• Be consistent throughout the website.
• Provide feedback, such as the use of breadcrumbs to indicate how to navigate back to where the user started
• Use the minimum number of clicks to arrive at the next destination.
• Use clear and intuitive labels, based on the user’s perspective and terminology.
• Support user tasks.
• Have each link be distinct from other links.
• Group navigation into logical units.
• Avoid making the user scroll to get to important navigation or submit buttons.
• Not disable the browser’s back button.

The options are as follows, and the areas that they control are indicative in their name:

• Body Style
• Primary Color