Canon PowerShot -- CLUNK

This site should be called guess what were selling. Youll find very few people that want to play this game. For the benefit of you readers, I played the game and guess what? Canon lost. A spinning cube, nondescript icons and very little about photography.

The sites menu is hidden. Why would you want to keep that information from potential customers? You have to uncover their identity by rolling over the icons, which in turn begins an animation that reveals cryptic menu information.

To make matters worse, to get to this page, I had to pass through a previous page that asked me whether I wanted Flash or HTML. What is the purpose of this unnecessary page? My mom doesn't know what Flash or HTML is, but she does have money to buy a camera. And she also knows that the address for Kodak is www.kodak.com.

New Volkswagon Beetle-- CLUNK

Once again, a site decides to sacrifice convenience for being cute. Heres the initial menu for the new Volkswagon Beetle:

• Im Here
  
• Love Your Car
  
• Joy Ride
  
• Facts and Figures
  
• Thanks!
  
• Feedback
  

The only menu item I understood was Feedback. So heres my feedback.

• I Was There
  
• I Hate Your Site
  
• It Was a Miserable Ride
  
• Heres a Fact: Your menu is not directed towards a car buyers purchase decision.
  
• Why are you thanking me? I just left your site and didnt buy your car
  

When someone arrives at your site, what should you do? Jump for joy you just got over the most difficult hurdle. Why make things more difficult for yourself and your customers by making their web experience unnecessarily confusing?

Gifts.com -- CLICK

What you want to do is let your visitors understand your site the second they arrive. Simplicity always wins. Take a look at Gifts.com. Heres a site thats designed for the shopper that only knows who will receive a gift. The missing element? Whats it going to be? The site helps you answer that question.

I begin my search for a gift for Gary. Using Gifts.com's menu, I start by clicking "For the professional." I then select "For the traveler." It spits out a list of possible gifts. I see theres a passport checkbook carrying case. Thinking it would make a great gift, I click on it and there's all the data I need with an option to buy.

Four clicks to a purchase how cool is that? And I didn't even know what I was going to buy.

Remember, when it comes to site navigation, you want people to find what they're looking for. Keep that always in mind when building your sites navigation structure. You want them to get to the point of buying as quickly and easily as possible. Remove unnecessary elements and avoid confusion, because it alienates you customers. Instead, welcome them to your site with consistency.