2. Defining navigation pathways, conventions are cool! and the F-Pattern

---

Navigation pathways

Navigation is about how easy it is for people to take action and move around your website. Some tactics for effective navigation include a logical page hierarchy, using bread crumbs, designing clickable buttons, and following the ‘three click rule’ which means users will be able to find the information they are looking for within three clicks.

I've seen a lot of different ways students are first introduced to the course. To provide a warm welcome into the course and a starting point, when entering the course, students may encounter a Front Page Links to an external site..

On a Front Page that will remain as the "home page" throughout the semester, sometimes we may create a secondary navigation menu at the top of the page (see 2) below.

1. Primary Navigation Menu: Conventions are cool! Leverage Canvas' built-in navigation system through the Course Navigation Menu Links to an external site.. I see many courses relying on the Course Navigation Menu to provide students the following links (and more): Home, Syllabus, Modules, Assignments, Quizzes, etc. 
   
   I would recommend not reinventing the wheel and placing items that typically live in the Course Navigation Menu into the Secondary Navigation Menu to avoid student confusion. 
   
   
2. Secondary Navigation Menu: If the course relies on common resources that students will need to reference throughout the semester, a secondary navigation menu can help organize these type of resources. (They can also change based on the various points of the semester as well!) 
   
   Notice that the Secondary Navigation Menu hosts a "Start Here!" button. It is helpful to direct students to where they should navigate to next.
   
   Consider:
   Will this button link to the first page of the orientation module?
   ...Or will the hyperlink change depending on when it is in the semester or quarter?
   ...Or do you plan to change the Front Page to use some sort of "overview page" based on the week to help students navigate to the correct module?

By now students are used to certain generic website layouts. Being unique is usually a good thing, but it might be a better idea to take advantage of what students are already comfortable and familiar with!

There’s no need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to effective website design. Again, I highly recommend relying on leveraging Canvas' Course Navigation Menu to provide students the "main" navigation. I've worked with faculty who have tried to customize course navigation and it takes a lot of maintenance, effort, and diligence. 

Effective website design is about more than just looking good; the information on your website must flow in a logical and easily followed pattern.

This is referred to as the F-pattern when people are scanning because as they scan, they tend to read less information across the screen to the right and tend to just scroll to read headlines down the page.

This follows the flow of most western language reading patterns. People scan sites starting at the upper left corner, then move across the page to the right, then down on the left side, and back across the page to the right one or two more times.

With this format in mind, limit to placing important information on the bottom right since that is the most frequently ignored area.