Schlumberger : Bolstering breadcrumbs
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Additional guides join up journey trails.
The Site
Schlumberger, a US-based oil field services provider, provides a means for visitors to track their movement between as well as within sections.
Schlumberger uses a breadcrumb trail to help visitors see what level and page they are at in any of the eight main sections of its website. The trail runs under the top horizontal navigation bar with the prefix ‘You are here’. Additional guidance is provided in the left-hand navigation, where the four pages visited immediately before the current one are listed under the heading ‘Recently viewed pages’. The list accurately records pages in different sections where the visitor’s journey has involved such a path; for example, following the in-text link on the Corporate Profile page in About Schlumberger to ‘More about our technical services’, which opens the index page in Products & Services.
The tracking system does not extend to the Investors section, which is hosted by a third-party but in all other respects (including use of the breadcrumb trail) is seamlessly integrated with the .com site.
The Takeaway
Navigation on the Schlumberger site is tightly constructed and managed consistently but has enough deep (fourth level) content that does not show up in left-hand menus to make the inclusion of a breadcrumb trail critical to orientation for visitors. Breadcrumb trails, however, provide positioning only within a single section; jump to another part of the forest and all trace of where you came from vanishes. This can be frustrating, especially when following prompts such as in-text links which might not be expected to lead directly out of the current section. Schlumberger is one of the very few to offer an orientation feature to minimise the confusion on such occasions.
The system does, however, have an Achilles’ heel – the exclusion by dint of its third-party hosting of the Investors section. A strong argument if one were needed against outsourcing vital corporate sections.
http://www.slb.comFirst published on 05 May, 2009