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This article is part of the Joy Gems series which originally appeared in The Joy Gems Newsletter and/or The Home Page Helper Network on ryze.com, a business networking community. |
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There is no question that web designers and developers are moving away from graphical navigation interfaces in favor of text based markup and that means List, Links and CSS.
The reasons for this trend are many. Suffice it to say, so are the benefits.
When you embrace text based navigation interfaces you'll reap these benefits:
- Increased accessibility
- Reduction in download time
- Reduction in site overhead and maintenance
- Absence of Javascript (I'll never be considered anything but a novice)
And besides, it's just plain cool. You can achieve most, if not all of the same effects you did with graphical navigation when you switch over to a text based system. Hover, active links, visited link states and effects all can be achieved with a text only system.
The concept is built upon List markup. After all, what are a group of links (navigation interface) but a list? Or a list within a list (nested list).
As part of my effort to improve the navigation interface of my joyofcode.com site (it's not up yet) I have been hanging around things like Listamatic, a comprehensive site that will teach you how to work with Lists, Links, CSS, images and more.
Just go there. It's a great reference and tutorial site.
If you've got a favorite resource on the topic please share it with us.
