How many times have you gone to a website and just looked at the
page wondering where in the &^#$&* you needed to click to get to
the next page, or any page for that matter. Man the site is
beautiful but the navigation is horrible. There are little one
pixel by three pixel squares you need to find to click on to get
to the next page. And guess what, once your little arrow turns
into a hand and you know you found a link where does it go? Argh....
Navigation is the key to any site. While the graphics are
incredibly done it does no one any good if they can't see more.
Now some people have artsy sites and there is always an exception
or two to the rules but there are a ton of these site around. If a
visitor can't see where they are going or can't get anywhere to
first time they visit your site they probably won't come back. And
what a waste that is because the author of the site is really an
incredible artist (well if they are that incredible I will
probably stick around just so I can see the graphics myself). But
let's think of our target audience once again. Is this supposed to
be a business page that clients might see? If so do you think they
are going to search around your page trying to find that one link
for 10 minutes. I doubt it. Is your target audience graphic hungry
people starving for a new piece of eye candy? If so you will
survive. The main thing you need to consider is who are your
visitors going to be. If anyone other than friends and fellow
graphic artists are going to frequent your page think really hard
about your navigation scheme. Make it as graphically pleasing as
you wish. But make it accessible or everyone loses out...