WEB SITES CAN USE GRAPHICS who get attention from users or as a navigation design. When they are used as a navigation tool, the designer must consider the downloading time of graphics and the accessibility for the visually impaired for a well-designed site.

Have you realized how many times you have waited to download an image? What if the images are used to navigate a web page? You get anxious, right.

Think about a student trying to access a course web page, looking for something specific, such like course calendar, materials or grades. Students have limited time and need quick responses. If you are designing a web page for frequent users, where graphics are used as a navigation style, provide them options that increase accessibility to your pages.

A navigation style gives information about the content and structure of a site. It determines how easy the users can access information. One of these styles is the graphic or spatial navigation.

Graphic navigation gives users the opportunity to move around your site through visual representations instead of a list of choices. Others called it hypermedia (McKnight, 1996) or image maps. With this navigation style, graphics act as buttons to link to other pages.

Placing the pointer over a graphic can identify a spatial navigation. It is a graphic navigation if the pointer and the status bar change to a hand in different places of the graphic. If you click there, you will be taken to another page.

Graphics can be a single image or composite where the designer defines hotspots or invisible link buttons. Graphics makes the site visually interesting, add aesthetic value, and provide interactivity. They can be two or three dimensional. 

Accessibility of a graphic navigation style is a sign of a well-designed site.

Use graphic navigation to get attention from users and to prevent boring lineup of standard links. Consider them also when space efficiency and functionality are needed. Place them on your home page, top of your pages or logos.

Sometimes, downloading a page with graphic navigation can be time consuming, specially with a slow modem connection. If you know what you are looking for and not simply surfing the web for fun, a simple click should get you where you want to go.

Another drawback is the difficulty visually impaired individuals have finding a way on your site when text is missing. Screen readers or software designed for these individuals let them search the web by reading text. If you don't provided text, probably they will probably leave your site.

Graphic navigation accessibility is increased when combined with text navigation at the bottom of the page or by adding alternate texts to the graphics. A text navigation style and alternate text will always show up while downloading the graphics.

An alternate text or attribute can identify a graphic, describe a product or give a message. When the pointer is over the image, the text appears even if the graphic does not. It gives users an idea of what they will find.

Add the alternate text when defining links on an authoring tool for web page design. It is a sign of good design.

Awilda Melendez
University of Puerto Rico at Aguadilla