3 types of mobile navigation

Dated Monday December 9, 2013

Everybody has its own ritual for browsing to information. Some over an hour in the morning to read to the whole paper first the first to the last word. Others scan the headlines, maybe read one or to articles and run of to work. The same goes for information read on mobile. Reading a blog in between to busy meetings is not the same as taking your time to read when your at home on the sofa.

There are three types of readers, with each its on preference on how to navigate through your mobile website or blog.

The information addict

The information addict checks blogs and news websites at least five times a day. He subscribes to every newsletter and every RSS feed. Old news does not count, only new news matters.

Providing navigation for the information addict is simple. Just have your homepage show the latest news and he will be happy.

The latest news directly on your homepage

The all-you-can-read visitor

The all-you-can-read visitor takes his time when it comes to reading the news. He won't stop at the first article he reads. Once he has found your blog he can get lost in it. Related articles, follow up articles at anything else you wrote. He will devourer article after article.

Navigation for the all-you-can-read visitor is twofold: going forward and going backwards. The most important tool for the all-you-can-read visitor is the back button. As easy as he follows a link forward, as easy should it be to go back a page. As long as he doesn't get lost, he will keep on reading:

Arrows to the previous and next article give you the opportunity to browse through the articles. The left button goes back to the previous page. The center the button shows you the complete overview.

The knowledge seeker

The knowledge seeker is, like the name suggest, on a quest for useful information. He looks for information on a certain subject. The quest is a part of a task wants to perform, and he would like to do it as efficient as possible. Does it take much time to find the information on your website. Then he will be back to Google in a heartbeat to find a more friendly website.

Navigation for the knowledge seeker is all about search and search results. A search bar should always be available. Search results should be ordered by relevance and the visitor should be able to browse through the result pages.

The search form is just above and below the news overviews section. Search results and easy to browse pages make the search function complete.

Mobile screenshots

All of the screenshots above are from website created with our mobile website creator: try it yourself.

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