The Navigation Pyramid - Handout

This handout summarizes some of the key findings from my master thesis entitled "Navigation as Rhetoric-Effective communication in governmental information spaces". The thesis is submitted for review by the Department of Media and Communication at the University of Oslo as of February 28th 2005. Many observers have stated that navigation by and large is ignored, and that users look straight for the content-or hit the Back button [15, 12, 18]. This should however not lead us to conclude that navigation is pointless anyway and needs no focus in the design process. In stead we need to conceptualize navigation in different levels. To this end I introduce the navigation pyramid. The pyramid serves several functions, but is primarily a synthesis of different theoretical perspectives on navigation and a roadmap for developing better navigation. Use it to get a grasp of the large and growing theoretical field Use it as a tool to prioritize when designing navigation Use it as a communication tool when talking to clients and co-workers Use it to evaluate navigation design Use it as a roadmap for building better navigation Navigation defined A simple definition is that "navigation is movement in information space (and ways to facilitate that movement". More specifically, navigation is a metaphor used to describe the process of moving around in information space, given the inherent keyhole-effect in digital media (see illustration). Navigation-or navigation design-is also often commonly as a description of various devices and schemes used to facilitate navigation. Navigation as rhetoric Rhetoric was defined by Aristotle some 2.500 years ago as "(...) the faculty of discovering in any particular case all of the available means of persuasion" [1]. In other words, rhetoric is an open theoretical framework for discovering and prioritizing goals, navigation devices, and all other "means of persuasion" in a given context. I define rhetorical navigation as "persuasion by discovering and prioritizing all of the available means of navigation in a given context". All global, local and functional navigation have been deliberately removed, creating persuasive effects by means of the "tunneling technique" [8]. Exploiting the "kairos principle" (or "the seducible moment" in the words of Jared Spool [21]) to present gift options. Exploiting the "information shape" [5,6] or genre of e-commerce checkout process. Building credibility and trust by clearly identifying the brand (similar to "pathos" in rhetoric) and presenting relevant but discrete options for contact and help.