2003 (!) usability testings have shown, breadcrumbs are not really that efficient and usable as thought. I´m very glad I found the article, for up to now I´ve always felt as being the only one thinking like this.
breadcrumbs are just used when fdamiliar, and most users don´t see them at all. there was another article about the study, but sadly I can´t find it any more... (update: found it! Interesting too: dont break the back-button!)
on projects I´ve been working on, I´ve always tried to integrate breadcrumbs. but I had to leave them, cos they´re often confusing or because they´ve become redundant.
the problem with breadcrumbs are: you don´t have them on the homepage, users don´t recognize them as navigation (if they see them anyway) and - that´s always the point when I skip them - they are too linear. they are perfect for deep hierarchies, but nobody likes deep structured sites.
people use everykind of navigation, and if the site offers non-linear navigation, breadcrumbs don´t help you a lot. better a clear interface with good orientation and flexibility than integrating an extra navigation system (nobody sees) to try to make a site understandable again.
von andreas am 08.07.05 15:19
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