Need help creating a good navigation system

[Robo]

I'm in the process of redesigning my site, one of the problem with my old layout is that all my link buttons are graphics, and people had to wait for the graphics to load before they can navigate.

So in the new design, I'll be thinking of fancy, but text links, I was thinking of putting a background image in the table, with colour changing text links on top.

But so far, I've only come up with a list of links (about 6 of them) on the side, which isn't very original.

Do you guys have any ideas that can make six text links look good? In terms of placements, alignment, etc.

[Smarky]

Use sytle sheets remove the unline and get the unline to appear when the mouse is over. http://www.gamespot.com has a cool effect where and arrow appears next to the text like on mouse over.

[Nicky]

I like the arrow effect but the underline effect only works in Explorer!

[Atirez]

Personally I have found that a couple of small gifs, some only 1 pixel high and wide. Placed into a table with a little bit of imagination can make a really good looking, fast loading navigation system.

Just an idea: Ditch the side nav bar since you only have six links, create a horizontal nav bar for the top of your page, and you will have lots more space to play around with

But remeber the navigation bar isnt the only thing in your website, what you should be looking to do is have a design in mind for your page layout and build your nav bar into that. As long as you stick to your colour scheme etc and you dont put to much emphasis on the nav bar. The whole sight should look and feel cleaner.

[Robo]

Thanks, you people are a great bunch.

Just a question, I looked at the source, but couldn't quite figued out how a mouse over the text link can swap the arrows, I know how to do a regular mouse over in Dreamweaver, but not sure how they did it so when a mouse over, another image swaps...

[goober]

Robo,

My guess would be that the arrow is a small javascript function called by an onMouseOver command. Also, check out Interfall Design(my web site). I believe we have a different style of navigation, or one that is at least worthy of copying. I don't mind if you do, by the way. Also, if anyone has links to sites with good navigation, I'd love to see them.

[Fluffykins]

Originally posted by Robo
Thanks, you people are a great bunch.

Just a question, I looked at the source, but couldn't quite figued out how a mouse over the text link can swap the arrows, I know how to do a regular mouse over in Dreamweaver, but not sure how they did it so when a mouse over, another image swaps...

Within Dreamweaver, there's a Behaviour called "Swap Image" that you can use to swap an image when as different one is hovered over. You add it in pretty much the same way as a regular rollover.

Quick tip when using swap images: give your images names! It makes it so much easier to identify them when there are a few.

Ady

[Smarky]

unline works in netscape 6 though although hardly many peepz that use netscape 4.x have upgraded cause if they knew how upgrades worked they would of upgraded to IE 5 already hehehhe. Netscape 6 though will be great once a few porblems are sorted.