When I started learning Web Development, breadcrumbs was the way one thought about navigation on a website. For the uninitiated, breadcrumbs are highlighted in the screenshot below.
However, none of the top websites that I visit everyday have breadcrumbs. Take a look at the screen clippings below.
Breadcrumbs, I read, provided easy navigation for users and should be implemented in a website. I tried to implement it in one of the projects for my previous company. I tried to implement it for CAT-NINJA. For implementing breadcrumbs in ASP.NET, you define the navigational structure of your site in Sitemap.xml file and the SiteMapPath control automatically creates the breadcrumb structure for you. The problem was defining the navigational structure. After putting a fair amount of time defining the navigational structure of the web site, we found it very difficult to accommodate changes to the structure. More often than not a page would come up where the navigation on the website would not match the way we put it in the Sitemap xml. At the end of the day, this left users with an inconsistent experience.
I am not sure how helpful breadcrumbs are for site navigation. Looking at some of the sites above I dont think I am going to worry about them anymore. It may be helpful only in some particular cases like the help section of your website or in cases where you are showing some sort of documentation. See the screen clippings below :
Breadcrumbs in Google Help(above). A breadcrumbs like navigation at msdn(below).
How has your experience been implementing breadcrumbs on your website? Is it useful?
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