Feature: Design your site for easy navigation (June 1996)

Real-world navigation is a combination of knowing where you are, where you’re going, and how and when you’ll get there. On the World Wide Web, the same rules apply.

There are two schools of thought on navigation design. The first is the passive approach, in which viewers are offered a complete set of options from which to choose their own direction. This approach dominates the World Wide Web. The second school is sometimes called directed or managed navigation. It involves forcing or influencing the viewer toward a specific destination or route as they work their way through the site’s hierarchy. This approach is an increasingly popular option for commercial sites. The strength of managed navigation is that it offers the opportunity to layer information and marketing copy in ways that are the most effective at generating sales and profits.