Site Map Usability
Summary: New user testing of site maps shows that they are still useful as a secondary navigation aide, and that they're much easier to use than they were during our research 7 years ago.
A site map's main benefit is to give users an overview of the site's areas in a single glance. It does this by dedicating an entire page to a visualization of the information architecture (IA). If designed well, this overview can include several levels of hierarchy, and yet not be so big that users lose their grasp of the map as a whole.
We define a site map as a special page intended to act as a website guide. The site maps we studied took a variety of forms, including alphabetical site indexes, dynamic diagrams, and two-dimensional lists. The term "site map" here thus encompasses a wide array of features, appearances, and names, including "guide," "overview," "index," and "directory."
Site Maps are Used Rarely
People rarely use site maps. In Study 2, only 7% of users turned to the site map when asked to learn about a site's structure. This is down from 27% of users in Study 1.
The good news is that users can actually find the site map in those few cases where they want to. In Study 2, 67% of the users successfully found the site map when we asked them to "Find a page that lists every part of the website."
Keep It Simple
The two main usability guidelines for site maps are:
* Call it "Site Map" and use this label to consistently link to the site map throughout the site.
* Use a static design. Don't offer users interactive site map widgets. The site map should give users a quick visualization without requiring further interaction (except scrolling, if necessary).
The one small complexity we recommend is to use a multi-column layout. In Study 2, users easily succeeded with 61% of tasks involving multi-column site maps compared to 47% of tasks with single-column site maps.
Multi-column site maps worked better because users needed less scrolling to get an overview of the site's structure.
Why Have a Site Map?
Seven years ago, 48% of the 50 websites we surveyed had site maps. Today, 71% of the 150 websites we surveyed had site maps and 59% of the 56 intranets analyzed in our report on Intranet Information Architecture had site maps. Also, most site maps have become somewhat more usable during the time between our two research rounds.
Despite the prevalence of good site maps these days, users don't use them very much. So why bother making a site map for your website? Because it can help users understand your site and what it offers.
I still recommend site maps because they're the only feature that gives users a true overview of everything on a site.
A site map lets users see all available content areas on one page, and gives them instant access to those site pages.
Site maps can also help users find information on a cluttered site, providing a clean, simple view of the user interface and the available content.
More importantly, it will help users at a critical time: When they are lost and might abandon your site if they don't get that last piece of assistance to find their way around.
Site maps are a secondary navigation feature — a humble role that they share with breadcrumbs. Indeed, the arguments in favor of site maps are the same as the arguments for breadcrumbs:
* They don't hurt people who don't use them.
* They do help a few people.
* They incur very little cost.
source:
Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, August 12, 2008:
Site Map Usability
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/sitemaps.html
Site Map Usability (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox)
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