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

[James Aylett]

On Wed, May 21, 2008 at 02:26:25AM -0400, Jared M. Spool wrote:

> > I think it is bordering on morally reprehensible to put the  
> > breadcrumbs
> > above the branding - at least for a content site focused on  
> > findability.
> 
> Why is it reprehensible to put something that nobody ever uses in a  
> place where nobody ever sees stuff? :)

Not just reprehensible - morally so. It must violate the breadcrumbs'
fundamental right to be seen :)

Lots of things are effectively invisible in any given layout. In fact
(although this is anecdotal, as I don't remember testing it properly),
my experience in a previous job was that our breadcrumbs beneath the
branding would largely be ignored as well. This was in a web app; we
had something like branding/global nav, title, breadcrumbs/tools,
local nav. People would ask us for navigation buttons to drill up when
the functionality was already there in breadcrumbs. Hierarchical
location breadcrumbs, so path might fare better.

(We were playing with the idea of moving the breadcrumbs to the top of
the page, above the branding, on the basis that if only people who
know they're there use them, we could move them to reduce the header
weight; it would be interesting to test whether this increases the
difficulty in finding them by either eye or mouse.)

In that case, people used the breadcrumbs once they'd had them
patiently explained to them by an on-site trainer. I can believe that
in many cases where that human interaction doesn't exist that
breadcrumbs lead lonely, unfulfilled lives.

James

-- 
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  James Aylett                                                  xapian.org
  james at tartarus.org                               uncertaintydivision.org