If we look at designing navigation as the process of planning for user goals, then we need to become more sensitive to obstacles that might stand in the way. Doing this means looking not only at user's goals, but at their behaviors, preferences and resources.

You can't know everything about every user, but there's a lot you can find out about them without too much extra effort.

In general, most people need to know some basic things in order to orient themselves. This is true whether they're navigating a building or a website. These basic navigation needs including answers to the following 4 questions:

1. Where am I going?
   In life we have signs, maps, sounds, smells, etc. to give us our location. On the web we get lost very fast.
    
2. Where can I go?
   On the web, to get from door to door, we want to know our options so we can weigh our alternatives.
    
3. How will I get there?
   On the web we can take a wrong turn & be quickly lost. Visible paths and search tools provide a sense of options for a user-friendly environment.
    
4. How can I get back to where I once was?
   A clear path (breadcrumbs) and descriptive labels help visitors backtrack without needless frustration.

Putting yourself in the User's Shoes

Take the example of a typical shopping site. A developer signs on to help a record store set up a web storefront.

In the early stages of discussion, the developer quizzes the client on their "mission and goals", their needs, and their concerns. In service to the client, the developer then spends three months creating a website that will meet every one of these needs and then some. The client is thrilled at the result.

When the website premieres, however, the client receives a flurry of email from disgruntled consumers. From server logs, the developer can tell that customers are not making it very far into the website. Sales are particularly nonexistent. Six months later, the client abandons the web storefront, convinced tht web shopping is a terrible farce.

What happened? No one stopped to consider the "users' goals", and how they might be different from those of the company.

The seller and the buyer can sometimes have radically different goals. The following chart shows the different goals that might be held by a record store and a user.

What is the likely outcome here? NO SALE

What does this have to do with the user and navigation? Everything!

The user had a primary goal and that goal should have been the driving process in this website's development from the beginning.

Navigation is "goal-centered" and "action-oriented". It occurs within a space, though it may not be a "real" physical space. Understanding these key concepts is the first step in understanding navigation design. Rather than designing sidebars and menus, you're designing spaces and interactions. You're crafting the User Experience.

To understand these "user goals" and design accordingly, you can start with these two methods: creating "Profiles" and thinking in "Scenarios"

USER PROFILES: User profiles are brief studies of people/businesses who might visit your site.

A little like a character study in acting or literature, in which you try to put yourself into someone else's shoes in order to understand them better. Not meant to replace focus groups or user testing. Instead they act as guides throughout the design process to help keep the human factors at the forefront.

Imagine you've come up with a terrific idea for a site: an online matchmaking service. You've spent some time exploring the possibile technologies and you know you can make it work. But what would people really want from a matchmaking site? What are their goals, besides getting "together"? Coming up with some user profiles can seriously help fill in these gaps.

SCENARIOS: Adding predictions to a user's profile becomes a scenario.

Scenarios, or possible situations, can offer you a view of the navigation process as a whole. It also fits the view of the site as an active place for people to move around in. You'll be surprised at what you can learn if you take the time to sketch some scenarios.

Take your fictional user profiles and move each individually through the site noting:

• How each mght move through the site.
• What barriers may be encountered along the way
• How to remove the barriers