Week 10 Reflection

Navigation - On the last lesson, we learnt how important it is to plan how users of the multimedia programme moves through the system and not get lost because of too many hyperlinks or branches. With navigational tools, they will not get 'lost' and will always return to previously visited sites. It is important to have 1. linear 2. non-linear navigation tools. Linear gives control Poor navigational tools - with 2 Linear navigation buttons with a large number of pages, say 200 pages, users will have to click the forward buttons again and again to locate a certain page. This is definitely ineffective, something I encounter when using the Yahoo search (images image) for example. What they have failed to include is navigational buttons with a scroll bar to facilitate ease of use to locate pg 159, for example.

An important feature learnt today is the use of menu, table of contents and concept map. It may not be necessary to include all these navigational tools in a programme as these may have similar features. Too many tools may also confuse the user. Screens should contain only necessary navigational tools and buttons for users to progress through screens in a logical path to find information.