Web browsing . It is important to know how to navigate inside a website , that is, to know the common functions that web pages have and their general characteristics, in order to easily find the information we are looking for and take advantage of the available resources.
Summary
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- 1 Introduction
- 2 Concepts
- 3 Main Page or Home
- 4 Menu
- 5 Skip Intro
- 6 Site Map
- 1 The web maps
- 7 The FAQ’s
- 8 Help
- 9 Users area
- 10 Contact
- 11 Source
Introduction
In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the development of information systems on the web. Practice has shown that information systems on the web require special treatment during the development process, making it necessary to propose new models and techniques that support the work team, ensuring the quality of the resulting product. With this idea in mind, there are different methodologies that offer specific models and techniques to deal with web systems. One of the most important aspects of information systems on the web is that of navigation.
The vast majority of methodological proposals for web systems highlight this aspect by offering models that allow it to be designed and implemented, ensuring the quality of the result. However, analyzing these models and techniques and seeing the results of different comparative studies, it can be seen that this aspect, in most of the proposals, is only dealt with in the last phases of the life cycle, mainly in design and implementation.
Concepts
Web page: is the basic unit of the World Wide Web . It is an electronic document in which the information on the Internet is organized . It can contain images, sounds, text, etc.
Website: it is a set of web pages, related to each other, that refer to a particular topic and are related through links or links. It has a main page called the index or “home”.
Portal : it is a website that is considered the gateway to other sites since its main objective is to offer directions or general information on different topics. It generally includes other services such as email, chat , a search engine, or discussion groups.
Domain: location of a web page on the Internet server , that is, the Internet address of a website that is represented with names and dots. For example: www.cibernarium.com .
Most websites contain certain common functions and categories that are important to learn as they make navigation easier. These are: the main or home page, the menus, the intro, the site map, the faqs, the help, the user area and the contact. In most websites we will find all or almost all of these functions, although they can be located in different places within a page and even on different pages.
Main Page or Home
Every website has a Home, that is, the home page. This main page is the gateway to the entire website. It allows us to have an overview of everything that the site offers us. In addition, it shows a presentation or introduction on the topic or topics to be covered.
Normally as we advance in the navigation, all the web pages of the site have a link that allows us to return at any time to the main page or home page.
Main pages we find the possibility of accessing almost all the places that the web page has, at least the most important ones. This is possible from the categories that are represented in Buttons, which are links to the content of the site.
Menu
It is important to know that on the main page we will always find the fundamental data of the page’s authors. In general, the authors place a section called who we are. This section informs us about the identity and profile of the people or companies that have developed the site, what ideology they have, what the objectives of the site are and why it has been developed. On the main page we will also find the Legal Note.
The Legal Note warns the user about intellectual property rights, both for the content and the design.
As we mentioned above, the Menu organizes the buttons that represent categories within a website. There may be more than one menu and these are generally located on the sides or at the top of the pages.
The main menu contains the most important categories of the website. But each category can display a submenu that deals, in turn, with secondary topics or subcategories.
Dropdown menu
The Main Menu is designed in such a way that it remains present on all the pages we browse. In this way, accessibility is facilitated when browsing.
Skip Intro
Some websites, before reaching their home page, show an “intro”, that is, an introduction of images and / or sounds presented by the home page. These intros are generally created with a program called Flash and it may happen that we cannot see them correctly on the computer if we do not have a Flash viewer. Intros can be long or repetitive so the user can interrupt them to go directly to the home page without waiting for them to finish.
To do this, you must use the “skip intro” function that is presented in the form of a link or button, in most cases in one of the lower corners of the page. It can also happen that the home page, containing many images, is very heavy and takes time to appear. In this case we will also see a kind of intro that shows the percentage of the page that can already be seen and even the word “loading” which means loading.
Site Map
Many times it happens that a website, having many sections and pages, can confuse the user and cause him to get lost. To avoid this, many sites include a Web Map or Site Map. The web map allows us to know in a graphical and schematic way how the site is organized, what categories can be found in it and, sometimes, which page is linked to another. These maps are a very useful tool for the navigator and, above all, they facilitate navigation.
Web maps
in some of the main menus, but more hidden in secondary menus in the headers or footers of the page, among other places. That is why it is important that the user pay attention when searching for it.
Site of cervantesvirtual.com the web map appears in the lower left in a slightly visible tone.
The web map works as a subject index. In fact, it is graphically presented as such. Each topic in the index has a direct link to its corresponding web page.
The FAQ’s
Most of the web pages offer the Faq. This acronym stands for Frequently Asked Questions, that is, “Frequently Asked Questions”. The Faqs are answers to the most common questions that most users have, and that the website owners already know. This prevents the user from having to write to the email or complete the contact form on the page to ask something that many others have already consulted.
Faqs appear mainly on those pages that users use to carry out specific actions, for example, on public administration pages they indicate how to carry out online procedures, in virtual stores they resolve doubts about the purchase process or in job boards they indicate how to enter the CV or how to apply for an offer.
On the Gas natural site ( http://portal.gasnatural.com ), for example, there are frequently asked questions about online billing. These questions are listed and each one is linked to your answer.
Help
Another category common to websites is the Help button, although not all websites include it. The help button can include contact information with the site by different means ( telephone , e-mail , etc.), navigation aid and even an explanation of the services offered by the website and how they work.
Many times the Help section is linked to the Faq section, as in the case of La Vanguardia digital.
Users area
The users area is a resource used by different websites to provide a space in which only those surfers who are registered and have a password can access. This area can have multiple uses on the one hand, it is a space in which exclusive services or resources are offered to registered users. These resources can be purchased for free. Navigators can register in exchange for completing personal data.
These personal data are used mainly to send advertising or information to the user’s email. An example of this can be found on the site: Centros.org www.tele- Centros.org , in which once registered, the user can access articles, contacts or educational materials on computing.
On the other hand, the user area can be a private part of the Website where only certain users can enter to communicate with each other. In this case, only the creators of the website or those who participate in it as associates, workers, clients will have a password. The general public will not be able to access since the password will be provided by the server or webmaster . This is what happens on the web pages of projects, institutions or associations. For example, on the website of banks such as www.lacaixa.es , the username and password is provided by the entity and only those who are customers of the bank will be able to access the user area.
Finally, you can offer exclusive paid services. In this case, access to the user area will be restricted to those who pay for these services. An example of this is the newspaper El País ( www.elpais.es ) which, by paying the electronic subscription , grants a password and password with which the reader can access complete news or articles that are not offered on its access pages free.
When we sign up or register, it is almost always necessary to provide an email. It is common for the sites where we register to use our data and then send us news by email about the resources they offer and even commercial information. In any case, before registering and entering personal data on a website, you must consult the General Conditions and the Data Privacy Conditions.
Contact
Finally, one of the buttons that is repeated the most on websites is the Contact with administrators or managers. The means of contact that is generally offered is an e-mail. However, sometimes a web form, customer service number or postal address is also made available.
Normally when we click on Contact, the e-mail program that we have installed on the computer (for example, Outlook ) will automatically open with the e-mail directly written in the To field. Another option is that to send a query a form appears that we must complete and send, without having to open the mail.
