In many cases a website’s navigational functionality is not considered during the initial stages of development. Before developing a website one has to think about the users’ needs as well as how the visitors are going to be ‘guided’ to complete the website’s goals (i.e. sales, increase leads, provide users with information) whilst satisfying the user’s need.

Ideally a website’s navigation should aim to enhance visitors’ browsing experience. If visitors are having trouble finding the information they are looking for it is likely that they will click away from your website and find the information elsewhere. The goal is to make your website as user-friendly as possible. Below are a few things you can do to ensure that visitors enjoy an optimal browsing experience.

Name your menu tabs descriptively

Let users know what type of information they can expect to see when they click on a certain menu tab. In other words, once they land on the menu tab page, the information has to be relevant to the tab’s name.

Where are they on the website?

Let users know where they are on your website by highlighting the menu tab they’re currently in.

Include a sitemap

A sitemap in the footer of every page will help visitors to easily navigate your website to find the specific information they are looking for.

Make use of interlinking within your website copy

Provide visitors with easy access to more information on your website by making use of inter-linking within your website copy.

Lastly, avoid drop-down menus. In general drop-down menus are not easy to navigate and therefore not very user-friendly.

The lazy website is found snoozing and gets a new home page in the hope that he will attract leads.

Apps ensure that users can customise their smartphones to such an extent that one can easily socialise on social networks like Facebook and Twitter, always be online via Skype, MSN or GTalk or work remotely – all through your smartphone. Don’t know which apps to install? Below are a few suggestions.

TripIt

Need help planning an upcoming trip? TripIt keeps all your travel plans in one spot and allows you to access your travel itinerary anywhere, anytime. You’ll never miss a flight again

Photoshop Mobile

With Photoshop Mobile you don’t have to wait to get to your desktop to edit photos, you can do it directly from your phone. Read more about the app or download it for your iPhone or Android OS smartphone.

Dropbox

This iPhone app allow users to store and access documents, videos and photos in the cloud. The free account offers storage space of up to 2G, if you need more storage space you’ll have to upgrade to the paid-for version. Read more about Dropbox and download the app for easy file sharing when you’re on the go.

JoikuSpot

Available in either a Light or Premium version JoikuSpot turns your 3G smartphone into a wifi hotspot. This is one of my favourite apps and while the free version has limited capabilities it is definitely worthwhile to purchase the Premium version. The app can be used on Symbian or Windows operated mobile phones, download it here.

Gravity

Gravity is arguably the best Symbian Twitter client on the market. Albeit paid-for, I think it is money well spent. The app allow you to upload photos directly to third-party sites like TwitPic or Posterous and you can easily manage multiple Twitter accounts from your phone. The latest version of the app allow you to ‘draft’ and ‘schedule’ tweets – very handy! Download Gravity here.

AccuWeather

AccuWeather comes pre-installed on most smartphones and provides you with access to up-to-date weather forecasts for most of the major cities world-wide.

Nimbuzz

Need all your social networks in one place? With Nimbuzz you easily manage all major IM networks (GTalk, Skype and MSN) and social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, MySpace). Read more about Nimbuzz or download the app.

What is your favourite app and why? Let us know in the comments!