How do you create professional navigation?

I have started making a website and I was wondering whether anyone had any suggestions about making my navigation links look professional. Obviously I need them to be very clear to see and user friendly. If you could suggest any sites that give good tutorials on this part of website design then it would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Peter

 

Hi Peter, if you are interested in navigation check out this site.. dynamicdrive.com/dynamicindex1/

 

I just use a simple unordered list with an ID of "menu" and then style it. Even dropdown menus will have the list and CSS (plus a dash of JavaScript for IE 5/6).

Using HTML properly (a menu is just a list of links, hence the use of a list, since the links aren't in any important order - like a recipe, I just use an unordered list) is the key to successful Web site design (at least the HTML/CSS coding part of it anyway).

Oh, and avoid DynamicDrive - most of the code there is bloated - as in "bloated like a dead body pulled out of a polluted river" bloated.

 

i think u make a drop down menu, just from css not in java script
yes you use id for menu but just only in css
just look at sample

megri.info

it is 100% css drop down menu

it is good for seo

 

http://www.cssplay.co.uk/

-DorainG
http://qleeq.com/
free/opens source software

 

Yet they use conditional comments. You're better off using Suckerfish if you want to use a CSS based dropdown menu.

 

Do you mean style, or usability?

 

Suckerfish can be made to be easier to use for older IE installations that don't have JavaScript turned on (as well as those who navigate via keyboard) by replacing the hash marks with links.

Also, remember that while Suckerfish is great out of the box, it's still not the best it can be. The authors shouldn't be expected to do all the leg work.

 

do not use javascript menu, because the search engines do not execute any javascript... and your links in menu will not be followed

 

pure JavaScript yes, but list-based menus like Suckerfish will be followed and the pages they link to stand as good a chance of being indexed as a regular keyword-rich text link.

 

i am agree with you, you say right thing.

 

I find suckerfish to be wonky.

 

Another nod for this site

 

I second the motion.

 

If you don't mind me asking, how so?

 

Thanks for all your comments in this thread. It has really helped. Especially the site suggested by DorainG. That was very good. I played around with it for a couple of hours and then I had a reasonably good looking set of navigation links. It really wasn't that difficult.

Thanks again

Peter

 

That's only if the links are created with javascript ( ie document.write, or x.innerHTML = y ). You can use all kinds of mouseovers and the search engines won't be bothered.