Navigation Thoughts - Continued

"Breadcrumb navigation" provides a visual that allows users to see their path from the home page and facilitates rapid jumps backwards. For example:

home > pools > in-ground > opening

"might appear on the site of a store that sells pools and provides instructions for opening an in-ground pool for the season. If the user clicks on the word "pools," the page describing the various types of pools would appear. Anyone arriving from outside the site can see the structure of the site and know where they are. Breadcrumb navigation can be build in PHP which sits on the server and is not blocked by the client (user). Unlike the story of Hansel and Gretel in which the breadcrumbs in the path were eaten, the computer breadcrumbs allow the user to find their way home, but an organized file structure (architecture) is very important!

"John Coggeshall presents more information on building the navigation using Peter Bowyer's submission "Breadcrumbs navigation" in his 10 April 2001 article.

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