User Experience
The main navigation is key to accessing all pages of the Event Platform. A cluttered or unclear setup risks users disengaging and becoming frustrated. This section guides you to create an effective navigation while ensuring consistency and brand alignment across Informa portfolios.
Below are three key best practice principles to ensure your main navigation is streamlined and clear for your users.
A concise main navigation is essential for users to be able to quickly scan and identify what they need. You should look to consolidate navigation items where possible and keep menu titles short.
<aside> ❌
Don’t have two rows of navigation or long menu titles (more than 1-2 words or phrases)
</aside>
<aside> ✅
Limit menu items to a single row and keep titles short (ideally 1-2 words)
</aside>
💡 Recommendation
<aside>
It’s worth checking that all menu items take users to different pages. Duplicated navigation routes can sometimes happen if sponsored pages are highlighted in the main navigation.
</aside>
By grouping menu items thematically, users can locate navigation items more easily and quickly.
<aside> ❌
Don’t separate related menu items
</aside>
<aside> ✅
Group menu items thematically within the main navigation
</aside>
💡 Recommendation
<aside>
Be sure to check that all menu titles are distinct so that users can distinguish pages more easily. In the ‘Don’t’ example above, users may be unclear on the differences between ‘Products’ and ‘Petfood Products’ or ‘Exhibitor Center’ and ‘My Event’.
</aside>
User research shows that people are more likely to remember items at the beginning and end of a navigation menu so it’s worth bearing this in mind when organising your menu items. The theory behind this comes from the Serial Position Effect:
Items at the beginning of a list are better remembered because users have more time to process them and commit them to memory.
Items at the end of a list are also better remembered because they remain in short-term memory when the list is viewed.
With the UX best principles in place, it’s now important to look at how the main navigation can adapt to the needs of the user at each phase of an event to help make the Event Platform truly dynamic. Below are recommendations on how to do this.
The pre-event stage of the event lifecycle has 3 phases:
