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Thread: Breadcrumbs
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Thread Status: Active Thread Type: Sticky Thread Total posts in this thread: 6
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LSW
Advanced Member USA Joined: Nov 27, 2003 Post Count: 6287 Status: Offline |
In a recent thread a reader asked what they are ad someone explained and typed out a example. So what is it really? Think of Hansel and Grettel leaving bread crumbs to help them track their movements. Breadcrumb navigation is the same. It helpes you track your position in the navigation scheme. Example for a school would be: Home > Classes > 1982 > 7b This would be Home page lead to Classes lead to the year and in the case of a German school that usually has more than one class, class 7b. If what I want is to here I see I can back track to 1982 and chose a different class, or backtrack to 1983 and check class 7b. So the Bread crumb is a trail that allows you to backtrack logically to higher instances, so if your navigation has different sub levels under different menu items, it can be a useful tool to offer the user. Problems: It is really not tested or standard yet. Many visual surfers do not notice it or know what to do with it. Visually impaired people seem to be in two groups, Those who do not understand what it is and those who do and can use it, but some who know what it is find it hard to deal with still. So the final call on whether it is useful in accessibility or a hindrance is not out yet, seems close to equal right now. Also the choice of separators should be considered. Most often seen is > which acts as a visual arrow in the direction. But this symbol has a semantic meaning, "Greater than". So a screenreader would usually read "Home greater than classes greater than 1982 greater than 7b". Some argue that even that makes some sense as each level is less important that the previous. Other opinions are a colon (:) is better and suggests a menu while still others choose to use the | key which visually compares to the line separators often used. But fact is > when considered wrong by some is so widespread that many visually impaired are used to it even though it may not be the best choice, it has become a form of default set by visual people but now do to it's widespread use accepted by the visually impaired. At this time their is no right or wrong answer, just opinions. I myself have not totally decided yet as to which I will use as standard, but currently tend towards "|". ---------------------------------------- Gu.aal kwsh� yak'�i it�akw ijeet wugood�k LSW-WebDesign.com ---------------------------------------- [Edit 2 times, last edit by LSW at May 22, 2007 1:18:14 AM] |
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newseed
Advanced Member Joined: Apr 2, 2005 Post Count: 2141 Status: Offline |
Good post LSW. After my experience with breadcrumbs (a whopping whole day), I find that it's uses just does not fit my need nor do I believe it serves purpose for screen readers. Not only that, I never pay any attention to them. For those that might not navigate too well, the breadcrumb method might be the answer for such visitors. In any case, with a good navigation system, breadcrumbs (in my opinion) are not necessary. ---------------------------------------- Success is based on how much you spend. If it's not money, then the alternative is your time. The Kasper Group |
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LSW
Advanced Member USA Joined: Nov 27, 2003 Post Count: 6287 Status: Offline |
Breadcrumbs are just an addition to the normal navigation. In my above example, you have only two ways to really continue the search:
I feel it is another aid and those who do not wish to use it can igore it and those who do can. If nothing else it gives the user a quick view of where and how deep into a web site they are. The bigger/deeper the web site is the more important it is. ---------------------------------------- Gu.aal kwsh� yak'�i it�akw ijeet wugood�k LSW-WebDesign.com |
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irka_hcmc
Advanced Member Somewhere in the Pacific Joined: Dec 31, 2005 Post Count: 156 Status: Offline |
Good post man, i like your metaphor about breadcrumbs. Actually all the web browsers are using that kind of system right ? You can go back on your previous pages with the Go-back button ( the green arrow in IE ewwwwww). ---------------------------------------- Website Promotion Guide |
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smithj7
Newbie Joined: Oct 23, 2006 Post Count: 41 Status: Offline |
What a great article! Short, simple, and to the point. I personally love bread crumbs (I have dylexia) and find them quite useful. But some of the speech users of Florida Blind Services web site reacted just like you said. A few specifically noted they didn't like the separator issue.  The | was one of the most hated. (and what I had previously used as I like it best too). I had a great suggestion to help though. One suggested that I use a graphic and then use the alt tag="" to separate the links for visual users, that is of course if I had to have bread crumbs. He asked me why I just didn't use the back button to go back and the title to the page to know where I was. Having bread crumbs on the site wasn't that important so we now have none.  |
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azeemi
Stranger Joined: Sep 13, 2008 Post Count: 2 Status: Offline |
Hi all it is really very informative and nice article on Breadcrumbs. In my opinion using breadcrumbs on the web pages is very much helpful for both for user and search engine. In many SEO techniques i see they use there keywords in the breadcrumbs and also anchor these keywords. its really a great method to navigate some where on websites. ---------------------------------------- php Web Development | JSP Development Company | Web Development |
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