Shuttle Computer Handels: Raising the bar

Methodical application and stylish design produce a navigation system that is both different and invitingly usable.

The Site

Shuttle Computer Handels, the European branch of a Taiwan-based computer components manufacturer, runs a product- and sales-oriented website. One of its most striking features is the lack of any left-hand navigation aids. Instead, visitors move around the site using a system of horizontal navigation bars (a right-hand column is reserved for a language setter and highlighted links).

The top bar carries a universal sections menu (Home, Products, Usage, Where to Buy etc) with highlighting used to show which you are currently in. A subsidiary horizontal ‘string’ shows the sub-sections, again with the open one highlighted. In product areas a third menu string relating to the range or individual model appears below a product image.

On pages outside Products a ‘back’ icon in the bottom left corner of pages allows users to return to the previous page, even if it is in another section of the site.

The Takeaway

None of what Shuttle Computer is doing is revolutionary in itself, but with methodical application and stylish design it has produced a navigation system that is both different and invitingly usable.

Relating the subsidiary section menus to the global horizontal bar is more usually associated with a mouse-over system, but Shuttle’s variation bypasses its potential for instability. Ideally, its third menu deck below images should be a bit more eye-catching. But the internal back button is an unusual attempt to solve the common problem of users losing the ‘thread’ of a journey if they are jumped between sections.

Above all, though, Shuttle has developed a system that is appropriate to its needs and what is essentially a brochure/catalogue site. This means sections are no more than two or three clicks deep and information pages are either self-contained or stepping stones within a simple journey, so the navigation system can reflect this and be shaped by it. At the same time, the degree of differentiation Shuttle achieves by erasing left-hand menus reinforces its underlying brand values of stylish innovation in a technical market.

First published on 08 March, 2005