Principles

of

Nikki Marcel
IST 626

Menuing

What

is

website

menu?

A set of choices for navigation displayed on most, if not all,

pages of a website.
Also called: main navigation or navigation bar

http://www.marketingterms.com/dictionary/navigation/

http://techterms.com/definition/navigation_bar

Principles

of

Menuing

Resources

Do You Make These 7 Website Navigation Design Mistakes

This is a quick read about some common website navigation mistakes found in websites.
In addition to listing what not to do, each tip includes an image showing a website making
the mistake, which helps the reader understand even more, why that design mistake
should be avoided.

http://www.webdesign.org/web-design-basics/design-principles/do-you-make-these-7-website-navigation-design-mistakes.21584.html

Principles

of

Menuing

Resources

How to Design Effective Navigation Menus

This is a blog with great tips on how to design an effective, intuitive website menu.
Each tip includes a number of images showing examples of good menus and a quick
description of why the example is effective.

http://blog.usabilla.com/how-to-design-effective-navigation-menus/

Principles

of

Menuing

Resources

F-Shaped Pattern for Reading Web Content

This is an older article about a study done by Nielsen Norman Group on peoples website
viewing patterns.
This pertains to good menu design because it shows that viewers typically follow an Fshaped pattern when viewing websites, which means your menu should be placed either
prominently at the top of the page, or on the left side.

http://www.nngroup.com/articles/f-shaped-pattern-reading-web-content/

Principles

of

Menuing

Resources

5 Best Practices of Website Navigation

This is a short video (uploaded by www.verndale.com) discussing 5 best practices for
good website navigation, specifically menus.
Although the examples in the video focus on retail websites, the same practices would
apply to all websites and possibly interactive learning modules.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESJu3PrOh_s

Principles

of

Menuing

Resources

50 Beautiful and User-friendly Navigation Menus

Although this is from a few years ago, this article shows 50 different examples of
interesting navigation menus along with a brief description of why the author likes the
design and a link to the referenced website.
Additionally, most of the descriptions also describe which coding format was used (CSS,
JQuery, etc) for each.

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/02/04/50-beautiful-and-user-friendly-navigation-menus/

General

Resources

Ruey, S. (2010). A case study of constructivist instructional strategies for adult online learning. British Journal of Educational
Technology, 41(5), 706-720.
This was an interesting study done on adult online learning for those who were not pursuing a degree. The researcher observed two
terms of an online course and conducted interviews with the instructor and students to find out what was effective and how learners
benefited from the constructivist design of the course.
Lin, P. , Hou, H. , Wang, S. , & Chang, K. (2013). Analyzing knowledge dimensions and cognitive process of a project-based
online discussion instructional activity using facebook in an adult and continuing education course. Computers & Education,
60(1), 110-121.
This was a study done on adult students interactions and learning when using a social networking site (Facebook, in this case) as a
discussion platform. The researchers use a Revised Blooms Taxonomy as a coding scheme and analyzed the data to see how much of
each level of thinking students were using in their discussions.
Deng, L. , & Tavares, N. (2013). From moodle to facebook: Exploring students' motivation and experiences in online
communities. Computers & Education, 68, 167-176.
This is a study looking at influences on student engagement in online discussions using Moodle and Facebook. This is helpful for
educators to understand how to design effective online student discussions.

General

Resources

The Journal of Educators Online (http://www.thejeo.com/)

This is an online scholarly journal covering the area of Computer Mediated Learning. This includes articles pertaining to instruction
developed to utilize available technology, be it mobile, computer-based, and online.

National Education Association (NEA) Guide to Teaching Online Courses http://www.nea.org/home/30103.htm

The NEA collaborated with four other organizations to create this guide (32 page PDF) to help provide guidance to educators,
administrators, policy makers, or any others who are involved in the process to provide quality online education to students. Although it is
stated that this is geared toward United States students in secondary education, most of it seems to apply to online education in general.

**Im adding this additional resource because it was recommended to us by Prof. Beem and I have found it extremely helpful when
considering visual design elements in my projects.
Williams, R. (2008). The non-designers design book (3rd ed.). Berkeley, CA: Peachpit Press.