Here are some tips for helping your audience find their way...

Be Consistent

Use navigational elements which are similar in look and operation throughout the site. If your users have to stop and decipher a new set of buttons on every page, they will be distracted from your message. Be clear about what the buttons do and where they lead.

Provide them with Compass Points

Try arranging your screens around a series of logical "hubs". This will make the site easier to navigate and help your viewers to stay with a single subject long enough to get the bigger picture. This technique works especially well with large sites.

Don't Confuse Your Audience with Too Many Choices

Once you have left the main index and hubs, try to limit the number of places within the site that your viewers can get to from any one screen. For instance, you may provide them with a means to get to the main index or the hub of the subject you are on, but you probably wouldn't want to change subjects completely and drop them into the middle of another discussion on another hub. If you're trying to lead them to what you think is a logical conclusion, give them the opportunity to hear your argument all the way through. Don't distract them by encouraging them to jump around.

Don't Chase Them Away

You may have noticed that there are very few links on these pages which lead away from this site. If something on another site forms an integral part of the discussion, lead your viewers directly to the page that you want them to see by opening it in a new window, rather than just dropping them at the front door. This technique will allow you to use the entire Web as a real-time resource without destroying the continuity of your discussion.