Breadcrumbs have been around for decades and they still play an important role in user experience. Breadcrumbs are a common component of websites and apps that help users navigate back to previous locations. \But there are some limitations: breadcrumb trails don’t always work well with search engines and many users don’t realize how useful breadcrumb trails can be until they’ve visited another website with them!
The traditional role of breadcrumbs has been to help users navigate backwards.
Breadcrumbs are a visual indicator of the user’s current location. They help users navigate backwards through their browsing history and will often be used in combination with other elements to provide more information about where they’ve been.
A common use case for breadcrumbs is when a user has arrived at a website through several links and needs to return back up the chain, or “home.”
Breadcrumbs can serve as a secondary navigation to help users discover more content related to their current location.
Breadcrumbs can serve as a secondary navigation to help users discover more content related to their current location.
For example, imagine that you are looking for information about the product “Cherry Pie.” You may have found it in the “Fruits” category, which could be located under the “Desserts” tab on your site. Once you’ve navigated to that page, you will find several links: “Dessert Recipes”; “Ingredients”; and finally, at the bottom of this list is an option called “Baking Tips”. Clicking this link would bring up a completely different set of pages with even more links! But how do you know where all these other tabs lead? That’s where breadcrumbs come in handy — they give users insight into what other pages exist within a section or subsection of your site without having to scroll through all those extra links every single time they want something else interesting from that same category (such as perhaps looking up some new dessert recipes). If it weren’t for those helpful little breadcrumbs leading us from one page’s title down through its contents until we hit something interesting enough to click on — well then I’d probably just keep clicking around randomly until something caught my fancy (which wouldn’t work so well if I was searching for specific information rather than just browsing).
Breadcrumbs are an example of the design principle “show, don’t tell”. They convey information non-verbally.
Breadcrumbs are an example of the design principle “show, don’t tell”. They convey information non-verbally, and help users understand where they are in the hierarchy of content on a site.
We tend to communicate with text most often because we speak before we think. Many web developers feel that they should be communicating with words through the use of headings and labels, but there is a lot more to communicating visually than just putting words on screen.
Breadcrumbs are an example of visual communication because they provide an easy way for users to know where they are within your site structure at any given time without having to read anything or having it explained verbally (which might not always be possible).
Breadcrumbs don’t need to be clickable; they simply need to convey the user’s current location.
Breadcrumbs don’t need to be clickable. They simply need to convey the user’s current location.
This is particularly important in mobile apps where, unlike on a website, it’s not always clear what portion of the page you’re viewing or which part is being interacted with. Breadcrumbs are helpful for guiding users back from deep within an app and making sure they remember where they were when they started their journey—especially if you’ve got a lot of data and features packed into one screen!
Breadcrumbs are typically visually different than regular links.
- Breadcrumbs should be visually distinct from regular links. When you create a breadcrumb, you want to make it immediately clear that this is something different than your standard link. In the case of our example above, we used a different color and shape for the breadcrumb links than what we use for regular content links.
- Breadcrumb links should be at least as large as regular links. Because they’re meant to provide additional information or context while navigating through content on your site, it’s helpful if users can easily see the relationship between those elements on their screen at all times (for example: “I’m on page 3 of this article”). So if a user has a hard time seeing one element over another because they’re too close together or in similar colors or shapes, then they may not realize that there are other options available to them in order to move through content more quickly or efficiently–especially if they have low vision!
Because breadcrumbs indicate where you are in the overall structure of the page and they’re visible at all times, they’re easy to use and good for accessibility.
Breadcrumbs are easy to use. Since they’re visible at all times and indicate where you are in the overall structure of the page, breadcrumbs can be used with very little effort. That’s why they’re good for accessibility! A user that can’t see has no trouble using them either—they don’t rely on sighted navigation patterns that might not be familiar to people who can’t see well, so anyone can use them without issue.
Breadcrumbs help users navigate backwards. For example, if someone navigates down from a parent page towards a child page (say from /blog/a-great-article-to-read/ to /blog/another-great-article/) then breadcrumbs will show them how far down in the site hierarchy they’ve gone and how many pages still remain before reaching their starting point again (in this case, just one). This helps users discover more content on your site while also preventing them from getting lost or accidentally clicking away before finishing what they started reading!
Breadcrumbs have some limitations but they’re still a best practice for accessibility on mobile sites
Breadcrumbs can be useful for users who have difficulty using a keyboard to navigate a website. Breadcrumbs are not a replacement for a full navigation system, but they can help users find what they need more quickly than if they were solely relying on the page’s content and layout alone.
A common use of breadcrumbs is as a secondary way to navigate through the site,
Conclusion
I hope this article has provided some clarity on the best practices of breadcrumbs. It’s easy to see why they’re still a good idea for mobile sites, but it’s important to remember that they have their limitations. Breadcrumbs are meant to be used in conjunction with other navigation methods so that you can make them as useful as possible. For example, if you have similar content grouped together in your navigation hierarchy then creating a section for each group would allow users who rely on breadcrumb navigation or navigation by landmarks to move around more easily (especially on small screens).