Sub-headers are navigation
Posted October 22nd, 2008 by David HamillUsing good sub-headers will help your users find the information they are looking for. It’s like navigation but without the clicking and the cool roll-over effects.
Sub-headers help users decide whether to stay
Your web pages will not be read word for word. In many cases your user is looking for a single piece of information. He’s actually still navigating. If he sees a page of text without sub-headers he may do one of three things:
- If he’s on the right page he might:
- spend longer than necessary trying to find the information he needs
- lose the scent, decide he’s on the wrong page and leave.
- If he’s on the wrong page he might take a long time working this out.
Sub-headers will help him make quick decisions in all three of these cases.
A good sub-header describes the text below it
A page with well-named sub-headers will help users find the paragraph they need. This is because they summarise the text below them. So a user scanning the page will quickly read the sub-headers and stop at the one they need. Either this or they quickly realise the page does not have what they need.
Sub-headers help screen readers
Screen readers like JAWS allow their user the ability to navigate through a page via the identified headers in the HTML. In these instances your sub-headers literally are navigation. People using such software will have a better experience if you spend some time thinking about your sub-headers.
It’s also a good reason for using the proper HTML code for your headers.
Try writing your sub-headers first
A good way top focus your writing is to jot down the key questions your user has when reading the page. You can then use these questions as sub-headers and then write your copy underneath each. If you begin to stray off the topic of the sub-header then it might be unnecessary text. Consider removing it or writing another sub-heading.
Improve further with bold text
You can make your paragraph even easier to understand by using bold text on the important words within the paragraph. This way your user can find the answer to their question even more easily.
Tags: navigation, tips, trigger words, web writing
5 Responses to “Sub-headers are navigation”
January 6th, 2009 at 11:58 pm
Very helpful guide, many thanks.
February 20th, 2009 at 10:41 am
Very true. I had a similar thought last a while ago:
http://edeverett.co.uk/menus-love-titles
So it’s great to read about it from someone able to express the idea much more eloquently than myself. (I must learn to write better…)
Also it’s probably worth mentioning that, as well as screen readers, Opera supports navigation by headings. It would be great if more user agents adopted this as it’s a great way to find your way around a document.
February 20th, 2009 at 10:56 am
Hi Ed. The point you make in that post is a good one if slightly different. Where possible it’s a good idea to make the h1 the exact same wording as the link on the menu. This is especially the case if you have recursive links that are unavoidable.
February 23rd, 2009 at 4:51 pm
[...] article: http://www.goodusability.co.uk/2008/10/sub-headers-are-navigation/ Using good sub-headers will help your users find the information they are looking for. It’s like [...]
October 23rd, 2009 at 11:15 pm
Cheers for the tips. I’ve had a quick look through your site and it looks very interesting, going to try to go for a deeper look when I have more time.
Just wondering what people think about using icons beside subheaders – sort of similarish to bullet points. I saw a great looking website with these before but unfortunately I can’t find it again.
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