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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TG, thanks for sharing the rule of thumb on how breadcrumbs should be used!
It may be even better to know on what type of web pages breadcrumbs should be used and on what type of web pages breadcrumbs should not be used.
Traditionally, breadcrumb is used to indicate the path users have walked through ever since they step into your homepage.
When users start doing search and finding information in product list, news, company profiles or events whatsoever, the “path” breadcrumb may not be as important as the product categories, news sections indication etc. In the meantime, distinct clear page title, subheaders are critical and play signififcant roles.