Breadcrumb Navigation

Breadcrumb navigation shows the user's path to their current location. Data below are from 75 leading e-commerce sites, collected in 2002 by Heidi Adkisson and in May, 2006 by KCC|NMA students. We examined the exact same sites that Heidi Adkisson studied in 2002.
Frequency of Breadcrumb Navigation: is it used?
Data Comparison: | 2002 | 2006 | 2007 | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Yes | 45% | 57% | xx% | |
No | 55% | 43% | xx% | |
Orientation of Breadcrumbs
Data Comparison: | 2002 | 2006 | 2007 | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Horizontal | 95% | 100% | xx% | |
Vertical | 5% | 0% | xx% | |

In 2002 5% of the sites included in this study used a vertically oriented breadcrumb navigation, yet in 2006 100% of the sites that used a breadcrumb navigation displayed horizontally. One disadvantage of using a vertical navigation is the amount of screen real estate that it can potentially take up. Depending upong the depth of a site, the character length of each sub section, and the style of how each is differentiated from each other (i.e. in an outline form one may use an indentation, or tab space, to demonstrate a nested element) a vertical breadcrumb navigation can grow both in width and height. Horizontal breadcrumb navigation systems, on the other hand, grow in width, with little growth in height regardless of the depth of a site.
Breadcrumb Separator (for Horizontal Breadcrumbs)
Data Comparison: | 2002 | 2006 | 2007 | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Right Arrow | 65% | 80% | xx% | |
Colon | 8% | 7% | xx% | |
Slash | 4% | 5% | xx% | |
Pipe | 9% | 2% | xx% | |
Bullet | 9% | 2% | xx% | |
Left Arrow | 9% | 2% | xx% | |
Semi-colon | 9% | 2% | xx% | |

80% Right Arrow

As you can see from the above examples, in 2006 80% of sites studied used a right arrow, or a right-pointing character, to denote a nested direction. Characters and symbols that do not give an indication of direction appear to be used less frequently. The English language is read from left to right, allowing horizontal breadcrumb navigation systems to be deciphered naturally and intuitively, easily demonstrating nested relationshiops without indenting.