Design principles of navigation

"Navigation organizes the content, so it can make it easier for users to find the information they need in the application. To make navigation more consistent with the application, first define your users, their typical paths to use the application, and the functions you want them to use."

——Material Design

Reasonable information architecture

The information architecture reflects the composition of all APP contents, and reasonable grouping and classification can make products easier to understand and browse; It can also make the functional framework have good scalability.

At the initial stage, we may face dozens or even hundreds of function points, so how to effectively organize information?

(1) Starting from user cognition

The most classic way is card classification, which allows users to organize function points according to their own perceptions. The specific operation can be divided into closed classification and open classification. The former sets up some categories based on the characteristics of the product itself, while the latter is completely classified by users themselves. In this way, the user version information architecture can be obtained, and then the same category items can be merged through multiple user version information architectures to obtain the functional structure that meets the user's cognition.

(2) Prioritize

Identify which are the most important, secondary and unimportant. Generally, it can be evaluated from these three dimensions: demand strength, frequency of use, number of tasks, and assisted by decision-making tools to obtain the optimal solution. When there are many functions, there is a dilemma. But if each function is important, it means that each function is not important and it is easy for users to lose focus.

(3) Grasp the scene type of the task

Different task scenarios correspond to different organization methods. Generally, they can be divided into browsing type and task type. In the browsing scenario, the product may need to display more objects, so that users can quickly get clear cognition. For example, the information APP spreads many news categories horizontally; In the task type scenario, it is necessary to highlight the key process nodes so that users can successfully complete the things they want to do, such as the shopping cart and order mechanism of e-commerce apps.

Finally, we may sort out the information architecture of these three situations, and then start the interface design according to the navigation mode.

Define users and core tasks

Before designing the navigation, it is necessary to clarify who the users are and their most common operations.

Take the requirements in the background as an example:

This demand has made it clear that the user is a certain type of business group. In the early stage, this answer can be actually analyzed by means of demand mining, user research, etc. The common means include user portraits, in-depth interviews, questionnaires, focus groups, etc. The specific operation methods are specifically introduced on the Internet, and will not be expanded here.

After obtaining the core pain points and demands of the merchants, what will these groups do? After task disassembly, we have listed their required operations:

Then we can sort out their main functional processes:

After defining the user community and core tasks, you can deconstruct the functional process and build the skeleton of APP through the information architecture.

Information source Shangpin China : //ihucc.com/ , High end website production, high-end website design, high-end website construction company