Enhance IA navigation guidelines by adding spacing for clarity and improving structure across sections, including mobile considerations and common mistakes.

This commit is contained in:
Dileep Pandey
2026-02-22 12:35:28 -08:00
parent 01a8c5bed9
commit 300d331c39

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@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ Navigation is the primary wayfinding mechanism in any digital product. Well-desi
## Guidelines
### Structure
- Limit primary navigation to 5-7 items
- Use clear, descriptive labels (nouns for sections, verbs for actions)
- Group related items logically based on user mental models, not org charts
@@ -17,26 +18,31 @@ Navigation is the primary wayfinding mechanism in any digital product. Well-desi
- Provide breadcrumbs for hierarchies deeper than 2 levels
### Patterns
- **Global navigation:** Persistent across all pages; contains top-level sections
- **Local navigation:** Context-specific; shows sub-sections within the current area
- **Utility navigation:** Account, settings, help — secondary but always accessible
- **Contextual navigation:** Related content links within the page body
### Mobile Considerations
- Use bottom navigation for 3-5 primary actions (most reachable on mobile)
- Reserve hamburger menus for secondary navigation only
- Highlight the current section in the navigation bar
- Ensure navigation doesn't consume more than 20% of the viewport
### Search as Navigation
- Include search for products with more than 50 content items
- Provide autocomplete suggestions based on popular queries
- Show recent searches for returning users
- Display helpful empty states when search returns no results
## Common Mistakes
- Organizing navigation by internal team structure instead of user needs
- Using jargon or branded terminology that users don't understand
- Hiding essential navigation behind a hamburger menu on desktop
- Not indicating the current page in the navigation
- Deep nesting that requires more than 3 clicks to reach important content