Indexes: Top-level documents (home pages) best act as indexes, directing the user to the specific features of your site.
Home Link: WWW pages should have a way to go "up" to the home page. This should be a small icon, or a hyperlink -- or both, at the bottom of the page. If graphical icons are used, an alternate text ALT="<--" simulates the look of a "back arrow" for the text-only viewer, emailed, or printed document.
Menu Bar: If the intended site is large, an alternative or addition of a menubar contained on each page will allow the user access to the top of main featured areas. The use of a small graphic imagemap, multiple small individual images, or text-only menubars are all acceptable means to present a menubar. Placement of the menubar is generally at either the top or bottom of each page. I prefer placing menubars at the top of each page. Placing a menubar at the top of each page allows it to be rendered immediately upon entering the page without the need to wait for the entire page to be loaded before gaining access to the menubar.
IMPORTANT NOTE: If the decision is made to use a menubar, decide on a menubar structure before implementing the site and stick with the design, file structure, and naming scheme used. Once a menubar is located on each page, any consequent changes to the file structure or naming schemes will require that all menubar entries will need to be updated to reflect the changes.....every single page that contains a menubar will be broken unless the changes are implemented.
Return to Sender: Avoid phrases like "Return to..." because the user may have come directly to this page without having been through the one you want to return them to. Even though you have only made links to it from one place, any other person may want to refer to that particular point, and will so make a link to that particular part of your work from their own.
Forward/Back: If the documents consist of a tutorial, multi-page instruction, or help information, it will be important to keep the flow from one document to the next in the order you intended for its primary audience. The addition of a Home Link alongside the page navigation tool will allow a user that enters from outside the flow to gain access to the beginning of the document series.
This document was produced using HTML Transit