WebGyver Revisited

Breadcrumbs vs. Breadbox

Posted by admin on September 12, 2008

NOTE: This article contains screen captures from an actual web site. The information and the screen captures in this article are intended for informational and educational purposes only. If you have any concerns, comments or suggestions about the fair use of published materials for informational and educational purposes, please feel free to contact the author at webgyver [at] webgyver [dot] com.

Although breadcrumbs definition at Wikipedia have their place in web design & development, sometimes too much of a good thing can turn into, well, I’m not sure, but judge for yourself. (Click the image below to see a larger version of the screen capture.)

Typically, breadcrumbs provide links back to the previous pages you’ve visited on a web site. Although I don’t want to victimize the web site from which I’ve taken the screen capture above, you can easily see that only four (4) of the eight (8) links in the breadcrumb navigation have actually been visited. (Yes, it’s the purple ones.)

In this example scenario (taken from a real-life web site I’ve visited today), the so-called Location Breadcrumbs (static navigation hierarchy that shows you where you are in the web site hierarchy) have two flaws:

1) They duplicate other web site navigation functionality.

2) They clutter the visual display and tend to confuse web site visitors.

1. They duplicate other web site navigation functionality that already exists in the header and in the left navigation. The thought that comes to my mind when I see something like this is, “Did they worry about having vague navigation?” Why else would they “overload” their breadcrumbs?

2. They clutter the visual display and tend to confuse web site visitors by displaying an accurate yet meaningless navigation trail. If you come to a company’s web site to register for a training class about their products, do you really need to see all of the possible navigation options? Sure, there’s nothing wrong with over-marketing a web site’s content, but in my opinion, this could be done more effectively — and less confusing — in other ways. For example, if you want to provide an appropriate after-webinar-signup special or destination, why not add it below the “thank you” text?

At any rate, I want to make it clear that I am not trying to spread negative publicity about the web site whose breadcrumb navigation I’m describing. No, I simply would like to call attention to web designers & developers (including me) who deal with this subject matter in the first place: Make sure you know why & how you’re using breadcrumbs — and please make sure your web site visitors will never have to wonder about it.