Navigation

How it is used

Designers talk about global navigation, the navigation bar (navbar), bottom navigation on mobile and side navigation. Often shortened to 'nav' in casual talk and in file names. The verb is navigate: 'users navigate to Settings'.

Example sentences

1. Users couldn't find their orders because 'My account' was hidden in the navigation.

2. On mobile we moved the main navigation to a bottom tab bar.

Common collocations

• main navigation
• navigation bar
• bottom navigation
• navigation menu

Related terms

• information architectureThe way content and features in a website or app are organised, grouped and labelled so that people can find what they need and understand where they are.
• hamburger menuAn icon made of three horizontal lines that opens a hidden navigation menu, often used on mobile screens to save space.
• breadcrumbA row of links, usually near the top of a page, that shows where the current page sits in the site structure, such as Home > Shoes > Running.
• sitemapA diagram that shows all the main pages or screens of a website or app and how they are grouped and connected, usually drawn as a tree.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

• navigation · Software Engineering

More terms: Information Architecture and Navigation

• user flow
• card sorting
• tree testing