Breadcrumbs

Web pages should include breadcrumb links to facilitate navigation within the site.

  • Breadcrumbs should be placed directly below the primary navigation bar.
  • A page should include either a secondary navigation bar or breadcrumbs, but not both.

    Both elements serve to orient users and facilitate navigation within the site.

  • The list of breadcrumbs is displayed horizontally with each breadcrumb separated from its parent by a right angle bracket and spaces.
  • Breadcrumbs reflect the site's page hierarchy sequentially from the root page of the site to the immediate parent of the current page.
  • Within the breadcrumb list, a page title may be shortened by following two commonsense rules.

    The short version of the page title must be:

    • understandable in context to have the same meaning as the full title
    • used consistently across the site

    You could shorten MindTap Features and Capabilities to Features in the following breadcrumb list because MindTap is given as context and capabilities is similar in meaning to features:

    Cengage > MindTap > Features