Website navigation terms explained: a plain glossary

Key takeaways

Website navigation has its own vocabulary, and knowing it makes briefs, quotes and reviews clearer. The terms fall into four groups: types of navigation, principles that explain why some menus work, research methods for testing navigation, and technical terms that affect accessibility and search. Each is defined below in one or two plain sentences.

• Types: primary, utility, section, breadcrumbs, mega menu, footer.
• Principles: information scent, recognition, Hick's, Fitts's and Jakob's laws.
• Methods: card sorting, tree testing, first-click testing, SUS.
• Technical: skip links, landmarks, aria-current, click depth.

What are the main types of navigation?

These are the parts of a site that help visitors move around.

• Primary navigation: the main, site-wide menu.
• Utility navigation: tool links such as login, basket, search and language.
• Section or local navigation: a menu of pages within one section.
• Breadcrumbs: a trail of links from the homepage to the current page.
• Mega menu: a large dropdown showing many grouped links.
• Hamburger menu: a menu hidden behind a three-line icon.
• Footer navigation: links at the bottom of every page.
• Contextual links: links within page content.

• How clear website navigation improves user experience
• Breadcrumb navigation: does your website need it?
• Website footer design: what to include and leave out

Which principles explain good navigation?

These ideas from usability research explain why some navigation feels easy.

• Information architecture: how a site's content is organised and labelled.
• Information scent: how strongly a label signals what is behind it.
• Wayfinding: how visitors work out where they are and where to go.
• Recognition rather than recall: showing options instead of relying on memory.
• Progressive disclosure: showing basics first and details on request.
• Hick's law: more choices take longer to decide between.
• Fitts's law: bigger, closer targets are faster to hit.
• Jakob's law: people expect your site to work like others they know.

• Information architecture for small business websites
• Information scent: why visitors lose the trail on your site
• Recognition vs recall: let visitors see, not remember
• Fitts's law: why bigger, closer links are easier to use
• Jakob's law: why familiar navigation feels easier

Which research methods test navigation?

These methods show whether navigation works for real people.

• Card sorting: customers group and name your content.
• Tree testing: customers find items in a text-only version of your menu.
• First-click testing: records where people click first for a task.
• Usability testing: people complete tasks while you observe.
• Task success rate: the share of tasks completed.
• System Usability Scale: a 10-question usability score out of 100.

• Card sorting: let customers organise your website
• Tree testing: check visitors can find things before you build
• Navigation usability testing: five tasks, five people

Which technical terms affect navigation?

These terms come up when developers build or audit menus.

• Click depth: the number of clicks from the homepage to a page.
• Anchor text: the clickable words of a link.
• Skip link: a link that lets keyboard users jump past the menu.
• Landmarks: marked page regions such as nav and main.
• aria-current: marks the link to the current page for assistive technology.
• Faceted navigation: filtering products by several attributes at once.
• XML sitemap: a file listing URLs for search engines.
• 301 redirect: a permanent redirect from an old URL to a new one.

• Skip links: let keyboard users jump past the menu
• Change your navigation without losing search rankings

Why does shared vocabulary matter?

When owners, designers and developers use the same terms, briefs are clearer, quotes are comparable and reviews are faster. 'The section navigation should highlight the current page' is a specific instruction; 'the menu feels confusing' is not.

What does this look like in practice?

A pattern we see: a brief asks for 'an intuitive menu'. Rewriting it with terms such as 'five top-level items, utility navigation for login, breadcrumbs on service pages and a tree test before build' lets every supplier quote the same work.

• See client work
• Website Design & Development for UK businesses

Next step

Use three of these terms to describe one navigation problem on your site in a sentence each.