Breadcrumb Navigation Study Options

[qwerty]

The Usability News newsletter from the University of Wichita has a study on the use of breadcrumb trails at http://psychology.wichita.edu/surl/usabili.../breadcrumb.htm

They tested three separate groups, giving them the same task: you are on the Wal-Mart site, getting supplies for a camping trip.

One of the groups was instructed on the use of breacrumb trails and told to use them whenever possible, and not to use the back button unless they had to. The second group was just shown the use of breadcrumbs, and the third group wasn't given any exposure or instruction to the breadcrumb trails.

I find it very interesting that both groups 2 and 3 used the back button a lot. Without being expressly told of the advantages of navigating with just the breadcrumbs, they didn't really figure it out. It took a bit of training to get people to see how easy they are to use.

[respree]

Interesting study, qwerty.

To me, "You are here," seems so obvious. Properly placed above the fold, the breadcrumb navigation so very intuitive. Of course, nobody is there to point it out, as with this experiment.

I don't know how one would make it more obvious, with a link that takes you to an article entitled, "How to Use Our Breadcrumb Navigation Links," which seems to me would be calling your visitors a moron.

I wonder what conclusion can be drawn on this study (e.g. how do you make it anymore obvious).

[Tom Philo]

Breadcrumbs are really of an advantage if the user knows what categories are UNDER each of the breadcrumbs shown in the list.

Since most people (myself included) scan and then click on links that appear to meet the needs of what is being looked for, going up two or three levels serves no purpose since the page you are on was CLOSE to the target information. just if it is that close you just go back to the page you were on then see if other links on that page meet your search / ordering / information needs. Why would you jump up two levels back to a more generic category when you are that close?

Jumping up two levels means that you again have to traverse the menus to get down to the detail pages that really answer you search.

Why click up two levels when a back button to the prior page is easier to follow? And once back up that level if none of those categories work then you are again only a back click up to a more broader category.

Here on HR I use the breadcrumbs since I have dug down and read the news in a particluar category and am ready to jump to a KNOWN comletely different category and it is now faster to jump up those two or three levels than try and use the back button. I may have gone 7 or 8 pages into a thread and now i would have to back nav those 7 or 8 to get to the topic. That wastes time.

The study is too narrow in depth of page to scroll down before ending the URL line. They should have used HighRankings.com forum as a test rather than Wal-Mart!

[Scottie]

I appreciate breadcrumbs, I'm glad to see them and I always recommend people add them.

But I don't use them.

Why? Because I am trained to use the back button. It's always there, I know how it works. I know to use the drop arrow to navigate back several pages.

Every site doesn't have breadcrumbs so I don't always look for them. They are a last-ditch navigational element that are a safety net, not a primary means of travel. Just my opinion. (IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[dbmasters]

Yeah, I am personally a fan of breadcrumb trails. That is an interesting study, but if the site I am on has them, I often use them. I don't always put them in sites for clients, but if the site gets a very deep hierarchy I do.

[Alan Perkins]

I appreciate breadcrumbs, I'm glad to see them and I always recommend people add them.

But I don't use them.

(IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/unsure.gif)

You mean you don't use them when you are surfing, or you don't use them when you are designing?

Why? Because I am trained to use the back button. It's always there, I know how it works. I know to use the drop arrow to navigate back several pages.

The back button takes you back to the page(s) you viewed previously. The breadcrumb trial may, or may not, be able to do that, but it does other things besides. IMO comparing a breadcrumb trail to a back button is a bit of a red herring - they fulfil different functions.

[Scottie]

When surfing, I rarely use them as a primary means of navigation. But I do use them when I want to see what's in the level above- often you arrive at a page by searching or some other method. I do think they are useful, because everyone navigates differently and it gives them another option.

A great implementation of breadcrumbs is Ebay. I'll often find something I'm interested in (although it's not Han Solo) and then use the breadcrumb navigation to see what else is in that category. It makes it easy to find related items on a couple levels.

The study seemed to say breadcrumbs are useless because people don't use them to get around a site- I never thought that's what they were there for. They are an alternate way to find what you need, IMO.

[Vertster]

Breadcrumbs are good in that they give you some sense of where you are in the site. The problem is that like others have mentioned, they are not on every site, and the back button is still the preferred way to Navigate backwards in the hierarchy of a site.

[qwerty]

The study seemed to say breadcrumbs are useless because people don't use them to get around a site- I never thought that's what they were there for. They are an alternate way to find what you need, IMO.

It seemed to me the conclusion was that they're not used by people who haven't been exposed to them sufficiently. I do think there should have been a fourth group: since group 1 was shown how to use them, had the breadcrumbs explained to them, and told to use them whenever possible, but group 2 was merely shown how they work without any explanation or instruction to use them, I wish they'd had a group who'd had breadcrumbs shown and explained to them to see if they'd voluntarily use them after being told what purpose they serve.

[sanity]

Breadcrumbs are good in that they give you some sense of where you are in the site. The problem is that like others have mentioned, they are not on every site, and the back button is still the preferred way to Navigate backwards in the hierarchy of a site.

Agreed. I tend to use them as it gives the user another way of navigating the site and helps them see where they are in a site. They'll never replace the back button or an overall good navigation structure.

[webstream]

I think there is a lot more to it to thoroughly understand the user's reasons for using or not using the breadcrumbs. For instance, if you scroll down the page and the breadcrumbs are out of site, is it easier to scroll back up and click on the breadcrumbs or just click on the back button?

Another example is Bob's reference to this article. When I landed on this page I had no clue where I was inside this web site. If I wanted to read additional "Usability News" I could use the link in the breadcrumbs or the link in the page footer.

On the Walmart web site at times there are so much page clutter the average user may not notice the breadcrumbs. Would better design methods improve it's usage?

They did say their tests showed when understood and used correctly the user took less clicks to accomplish their tasks. IMO, that makes breadcrumbs worth considering, as well as a site map.

webstream

[mcanerin]

Not to mention the fact that breadcrumbs can be a nice opportunity to add some legitimate, helpful, Keyword-rich links on all your pages. From an SEO standpoint, they should be on almost every page you do that can be justified by it.

Ian

[mal4mac]

Jacob Nielsen makes interesting use of breadcrumbs (and little else). He has an interesting article on the usefulness (or not!) of navigation:

[http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20000109.html]

He recommends only having about five pervasive links. He doesn't say exactly which five. How about having a sub-thread on 'favourite five pervasive link', how about: search, home, sub-home, newsletter, me?

Of course you should also have local links to related content. Should these appear in the content? Or should they be in a margin? Or a mix? How do you determine the mix?

[burgeltz]

I agree with Scottie's view completely. We've run lots of usability tests on breadcrumbs and found that people's eyes shoot right past them to the main content.

There's great book on decision-making that studies how fire fighters make decisions in an emergency. The bottom line was that they practice something called "satisficing," which means they followed the first option that seemed reasonable until events forced them to chose some other option.

The implication of this for usability is that people pretty much click on the first link that looks interesting, and keep doing that until they're clearly not finding what they want. So it's most important to make the links at the top of your content valuable and clearly labeled.

We still recommend breadcrumbs, but we spend a lot more time figuring out how to make that first block of content as usable as possible.