[Sigia-l] breadcrumbs all the way at the top

[Will Evans]

I think it is bordering on morally reprehensible to put the breadcrumbs
above the branding - at least for a content site focused on findability.
There are certain things that are so commonplace, they are pseudo-design
patterns and people expect branding and global nav (Help, Sign In, Contact)
as well as ads at the top. Although I understand the rational (that I am
surmising) which is that when a person finishes an article, as an example,
they can navigate via breadcrumbs backwards by having it at the bottom. But,
enough of my fool-hardy opining - the only way to answer this is - design
both and test with real users - because at the end of the day - we are not
the user. So go forth young Jedi and test this bad boy out and see if she
soars like a condor or sinks like Bush's approval rating.

On Tue, May 20, 2008 at 5:30 PM, Mike Brown <mike.brown at signify.co.nz>
wrote:

> Weston Thompson wrote:
> > Frommers.com has breadcrumbs at the tippy top and very bottom.
> >
> > I didn't even notice them until I printed a screen shot of the page for
> an
> > inspiration stack I was building (getting ideas for article pages).  I
> would
> > be curious to see if people in general notice breadcrumbs in that
> location.
>
> That's fascinating. Even though I'm looking at the site in response to
> this thread (ie looking at breadcrumbs at top of page), and you've
> indicated that that's where they are ... I'm looking at the page and
> thinking, "It's one of those browser warnings I get when a site wants to
> open a pop-up windown" and if I'm not thinking that, I'm thinking "It's
> a Google word ad".
>
> And I'm only thinking either of those cos I've forced myself to look
> there. Normally my eyes are well-trained to ignore that banner space :)
>
> Of course, this is just me, but I'd be surprised of any success stories
> with breadcrumbs positioned here.
>
> Mike
>