The other day in a IA work shop session one of our clients asked a really valid question:
“…do too many links in a page to the same destination page make the page harder to use because visitors have to look through more content to find what they’re looking for? For example on the home page we have links to the same destination page in the navigation bar, the content area and the promotional area.”
Some argue that more than one link to the same destination page is just too many, and I agree that if there is more than one link to the same destination page then there needs to be a good, and well considered, reason for this.
However as with many usability and IA questions there is no definitive rule, and the answer depends on many variables…
More than one link is OK but don’t just duplicate your navigation bar
For real priority content and key user tasks we will often make sure that there is more than one link. So say a key business objective is ‘to get more users to sign up’ we may have a link in the navigation bar and a link or a big button in the content area to the sign up form.
The reason we take this approach, having more than one link to core content and key tasks, is that we’ve observed users in the same testing sessions navigate only using the navigation bar and others navigate only by scanning the content area for links and buttons (seeming almost blind to the navigation bars). Therefore the argument is very strong to add more than one link to key tasks on a page.
What we really don’t like to see is a web site where the whole of the navigation bar is repeated in the content area, and worse still some sites where key user goals and call to actions are in the navigation bar, cross promotional navigation area and content area!
That’s why user journeys and listing core tasks / goals is so important, with this understanding we can make sure that on relevant pages we have 2 or potentially 3 ways into that primary business function, on other pages where that specific task is not as important we will have fewer links.
Big buttons help prioritise key tasks and speed up user journeys
The other ‘trick’ we use is pushing key journeys with big buttons, we know big buttons are clicked more often and more quickly, so by making a link really big gives the user a very clear entry point to a key task. It screams to the user ‘this is really important’ and will often out perform a number of smaller links. Of course you can’t super size all your links – just your really core user task(s) on that page.
So on a page non core business functions / ‘non key tasks’ should not be duplicated – instead rely on good Information Architecture.
We find that using trigger words works really well on navigation pages, helping to ensure that the different audience groups understand the IA of the site, grouping and labelling of content.
Thinking of making tweaks and changes?
Before we make fundamental changes we typically we like to get a detailed understanding so we’ll often use a mix of these to help build our knowledge:
- Know where you want your users to go – review your audiences and their key user journeys, look at specific tasks and the IA
- Check analytics to see which links are being clicked on
- Split test if possible (A, B test – try removing duplicate links for a period of time and see what the impact is)
- Do some quick and dirty user testing
- Keep reviewing the site’s aims and business objectives
As you can see this was a really great question and deserved more than a one line answer!
