the pros and cons of top level and side navigation

Navigation is one of the most important elements of any ecommerce website design, and should be taken seriously right from the very early stages of the project. These is simply down to the fact that if a user can't find where they are going on the ecommerce store, they will leave the site and go elsewhere. There are essentially two types of category navigation; top level and side navigation. The ecommerce designers at advansys explain the pros and cons on each.

Top-Level Navigation

Top-level navigation can be clearly seen when you first arrive at the store. It's always clear how to navigate, and tabs can be highlighted to indicate which page you are on. It's also possible to add drop-downs to this navigation, enabling access to a high number of pages.

On the down side however, when a content management system is involved, the initial solution may look perfect, but what happens when your product range increases and your category quantity multiplies? There will be no space for more tabs, unless you start to stack. This is perfectly fine, however from a graphic design perspective it looks messy, and is not advised.

Top-level navigation is used best on brochure website design or static website design due to the low quantity of pages, and overall size of the website design.

Side Navigation

With side navigation you can have almost as many categories and sub pages on your ecommerce solution as you wish since the navigation will simply stack down the website page. You can also include sub categories with drop-downs enabling a huge number of product page titles in a compressed space.

The only down side to side navigation is that not all high level categories will be displayed on the page, unless you scroll down the page. This however is not a huge problem, as almost all web users know to scroll down to see more information.

Side navigation is the best option for ecommerce solutions, and most recommended by the ecommerce experts at advansys.

Take a look at the fantastic ecommerce design portfolio, and website designs from the website design experts at advansys for some great examples of successful navigation in use.