Navigation Structures
A "navigation structure" helps visitors to find the information your web site is designed to provide. At present, there are three main navigation structures commonly used on the World Wide Web:
In the guided structure, each page has a "Next" and a "Previous" button to allow forward and backward movement. This helps guide the visitor through a sequence of pages starting with the home page. This can be a suitable choice for fairly simple web sites or for a specialized section of a large web site (e.g., an online Order Form) comprised of a few web pages that are intended to be followed in a logical sequence.
In the cued structure, every page of the web site offers links to every other page. This allows the visitor to enter the web site from any page (which often happens when the visitor finds your web site by means of a search engine) and immediately access any other page. This can be a good choice for intermediate size web sites (say 6 to 10 web pages), where the total number of links is small enough to fit in a manageable display on each page.
In the floating structure (probably the most commonly used navigational structure on the web), the home page acts as a main menu for the web site and has links to all the major sections of the web site. When you click on a link to any one of the major sections, you will find links to all the web pages within that section -- plus a "Home" link to take you back to the home page. No matter which section you are in, you must return to the home page to gain access to the other major sections of the site. This is probably the best choice for large web sites (more than 10 pages and on up to dozens of pages). Organizing this way is like breaking a book up into chapters, each with its own little table of contents.