breadcrumb nav positioning?

[simmerdown]

Breadcrumb navigation ... that trail of links near the top of a page saying "you are here" ... a great feature.

I've got a question, though; an opinion poll of sorts. Most sites I've seen that employ the breadcrumb trail place it somewhere just below the header (Tek-tips does this, putting stuff like "Home > Forum Areas > Programmers > Graphics & Web Tools" right under the "search" box in the header).

What do you think of putting the breadcrumb trail at the very top of the page, such as at

http://www.finegolfprop.com/dove/photos.htm

for instance? Is it too counterintuitive? Or a good use of space? Do you like it, hate it, does it make a difference? finegolfprop was on the small side, but I'm evaluating the wisdom of doing similarly for a much larger educational site. Tell me yes, tell me no, tell me what you think.

Thank you

 

[DeZiner]

If your site is laid out nicely, and organized you should not need this at all. How many people really rely on that info. You should always have a way out and back like a nav column that never moves from page to page. make it easy to get around and do away with the added distraction.

My two cents.

Good Luck!

 

[funkymonk]

My opinion is that you shouldn't make people look to hard for what they want, they will get fed up and go somewhere else. As for the 'breadcrub' links, I never use them my self but I do notice that they are (almost) always in the same place as tek-tips has them. If people are used to finding these links there then that is where they will look. I couldn't get to the site you referenced as the proxy kept timing out so couldn't see what you ment, but you say they are on the top of the page rather than under the header - that is where most navigation goes so at least people will look there. In the end it's how your site navigates but also it would be nice to do something different. It's just how much change can people deal with? roda B-)

http://www.sameplanet.co.uk

Learning is like rowing against the current. As soon as you stop, you start going backwards.

 

[simmerdown]

I just noticed that About.com places their breadcrumb trail at the very top of the screen, too ...

http://desktoppub.about.com/library/fonts/bl_hs_fonts.htm

is an example. Not that About is a outstandingly great example of design, but it's a pretty high-traffic place.

It still makes sense to me every time I see the nav placed up there. I'm just trying to make sure that I design for what most people find usable, not merely what I think is a cool idea.