Practice Abstract - Research and innovation

Enhancing navigation: The example of Organic Farm Knowledge

To boost the usability and effectiveness of your project’s knowledge platform, the user interface and user experience are crucial aspects to consider, both from a technical and an end-user perspective.

• Provide search and analysis tools to enable end users to quickly find the right information.

• Labels (menu labels or page headings, for example ‘Themes’) direct users to specific areas. Make sure the labelling system is context relevant, clear, and meaningful to the users of your platform, helping them to easily determine where they are.

• Use visual semantic elements to indicate specific menu options (for example a house icon for the main page).

Have a look at the online platform Organic Farm Knowledge (https://organic-farmknowledge.org/) as an example of an easy-to-navigate toolbox: The homepage puts the search function and the three most important categories at the centre, allowing users to explore content within one of these categories or to search for specific content. Besides offering a clear menu navigation and the option to automatically translate content into different languages, the website is responsive to mobile devices. To know where they are on the website, end users can also use the secondary navigation tool below the page heading.

An introduction video to the platform will soon be available here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKA7iMg-_4SxmWbxYQzfjEw

Some more tips:

• Ensure quality control and content validation to increase the adoption and use of a platform and the knowledge and materials provided.

• Consider personalisation and/or customisation, feeding users with tailor-made content adapted to their preferences and/or offering users the flexibility to define the content they want to access.

Source Project
EURAKNOS
Ongoing | 2019-2021
Main funding source
Horizon 2020 (EU Research and Innovation Programme)
Geographical location
Belgium
Project details

Project Keywords