As a note to myself in studying usability for Hong Kong and China website projects:

How Breadcrumb work:

  • When users drill further down to access contents in the next levels, the breadcrumb trail will grow longer, showing users each preceding step
  • Each step is click-able allowing users to navigate back up one or more levels

When to use Breadcrumb:

  • Breadcrumbs work best when there’s a hierarchical structure with good categorization
  • It would be problematic when users are stepping into different categories and are doing a keyword search. Difficult to keep track of the trail

Consider the best practices for applying breadcrumb in our site:

1. Try not to invent a new wheel unless it’s necessary. Follow conventions:

  • Use “>”, “:” or “/” between levels. Recently there are many new forms being used but not sure if they work better than the convention design.
  • Underline links if possible
  • Position in upper left portion of the page

2. Not to show breadcrumb if the site does not have deep levels or enormous amount of content pages to support the function.

3. Avoid showing a breadcrumb trail is it’s not going to link back to the pages indicated.

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