Web Site Functionality Introduction

Imagine you're using a GPS system to get around town to show your clients a series of potential houses. Your GPS device has 68 buttons on it and they aren't labeled correctly so when you push the buttons you get unexpected results. You push the menu button and you get topics about dog whistles and how to use them. To search for an address you have to go to the menu, select 7 menu items and finally you get the input field. How long will you own that GPS device? You'll take it back or throw it out.

Now imagine another GPS device. It has 5 buttons. One says, "search for a location". One says, "program trip". Once says, "Start Trip". You get the point. It is easy to use and intuitive.

Web design has a strong functionality component to it. I see web sites all the time with 50 items in the main navigation area. Some are broken links. Some take the user to another browser window, some links point to a frame, and some change out the whole curren browser window. They aren't consistent and they produce unexpected results.

A web site should be easy to navigate, consistent, and should work as expected.