Consistent Navigation
Navigational mechanisms repeated across pages — primary nav, footer, breadcrumbs, search — must appear in the same relative order on every page where they occur. Users who rely on muscle memory should not have to rediscover the layout each time.
What it asks
When the same navigation mechanism appears on multiple pages of a site, it must be in the same relative order each time. The visual position is what matters less than the source order — if “Home, Products, Pricing, Contact” is the order on one page, it must be the order on every other page where that nav appears.
The user is allowed to change the order (rearranging a customisable dashboard, for example), and the rule applies to navigation that the site itself provides.
How to meet it
- Drive primary navigation from a single component or template — never hand-code per-page navs.
- Keep the same order in the footer across the site.
- Keep breadcrumbs in the same position (typically just below the header) on every page that has them.
- For search inputs, keep the same location in the header or sidebar.
- For multi-step flows, keep step indicators in the same position throughout the flow.
Common failures
- A primary nav rearranged on the marketing pages relative to the app pages, because two different teams own the templates.
- Breadcrumbs shown above the H1 on some pages and below it on others.
- A “Help” link in the header on most pages and in the footer on the checkout page.
- A search input in the top-right on most pages and tucked into the sidebar on the blog.
Why it matters
Screen-reader users build a mental map of a site’s structure quickly. Sighted keyboard users tab through landmarks. Users with cognitive disabilities rely on consistent positioning to orient. When the nav rearranges between pages, every user has to re-learn — but assistive-tech users pay the highest cost, because they cannot scan the whole page at a glance to spot the new layout.
This is one of the easiest SCs to satisfy if your site is built from a shared template system, and one of the most painful to retrofit if you have years of legacy templates.