Clever navigation names on your website can be creative and fun, but are they really worth confusion?

You’re an explorer who loves to flow with inspiration. You appreciate the stream of efficiency and productivity, and as a peak performer, you pay attention to the details and love to polish up those special flourishes.

You need to have your unique ideas expressed to the world, and at the same time, you need to be seen, immediately recognized, and have people find what they need on your website.

We wouldn’t want them to get confused while they were on your website and not find what they needed, would we? Maybe even worse, feel frustrated and discouraged enough to not come back.

Let’s get down to what it takes to have an intuitive, user-friendly navigation so your ideal clients can happily peruse the home of your business.

Keep it simple, sweetie.

My husband is a wooden Schooner captain of many years {the sailing ship pictured above is one he piloted}. Around our home you will find nautical art and old ship paraphernalia among the Buddhas and Moroccan lamps.  I enjoy the sailor metaphor when considering proper website navigation.

Your website is the ship of your business. How does it sail?

The ocean is the internet, vast and expansive.

The sailing ship is your site and the captain of the ship is the person who comes to your site.

When a ship is at sea, it needs a course and compass to for clear navigation. Make it automatically understandable so there is no interpretation happening.

When it doubt, choose: “clarity over cleverness.”

Those standard titles such as About, Contact, FAQ, Services, Blog, etc., have clear purpose. Trying to force cleverness, like a cute blog title as one of your menu items, might not be interpreted as your valuable informational resource. Keep your blog title inside on the blog page. You can show it off, along with your unique clever there.

Trying to entice clients to a section of your site with cutesy is a risky proposition.

You’re as likely to lose them as you are tickling their fancy. Visitors usually have a purpose before they come to your site. If they don’t have content in mind, they make have landed on your site by chance as a first time visitor and they will try to make sense of who you are and what is you do. They want to identify with you on an emotional level which can be done in your brand visuals, but on an intellectual level what concise and efficient navigation system to get around for themselves.

So in the meantime, please don’t let inspiration get in the way of information.

They need to feel clearly directed while they are sailing as the captain of the ship.

I come in to help you understand where to express your brilliant ideas and creativity, and that can be done other places in your site and brand identity visuals. The rest of your content strategy, design, and clearness of your website make the lasting impression. We can channel your beautiful authentic expression in these areas where it makes lasting impact count. Not to lose them at confusion on cute navigation bar names.

It’s my job to build or restore the ship so the sailor that wants to chart your business can arrive at their needed destination on this trip, and keep them traveling with you.

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