Breadcrumb navigation is a metaphor that refers to the story of Hansel and Gretel, who in the famous Brothers Grimm fairytale are taken deep into the woods in hopes that they will not find their way back out. The siblings cleverly mark their path by dropping breadcrumbs along the way. At face value, the metaphor suggests that website breadcrumbs will lead a site visitor back to the pages s/he has already visited. While this is true of some breadcrumbs, the most common form stands to show users where they are in a hierarchy of categories, organized in hyperlinks from broad to specific, regardless of the path a user took to arrive at their current page.
All breadcrumbs share these attributes: they are used in concert with other navigational options to help a user navigate within a website, and they feature a list of hyperlinked elements (usually separated by a neutral character). There are three primary types of breadcrumb navigation: location, path, and attribute. Location breadcrumbs, by far the most common manifestation, alert a user as to where s/he currently is within a site's hierarchy. Typically, breadcrumbs resemble this configuration:
Home > Broadest Category > Narrower Category > ... > Current Page
In this site, I investigate the issues around the use of breadcrumb navigation. In what ways are breadcrumbs currently used? In what ways are they represented on pages? Do users notice breadcrumbs? Do they know how they work and what they do? Do breadcrumbs make for more effective and efficient site navigation?
I display and discuss real-world examples, especially noting and discussing empirical research that has been conducted in this field. I also include other gathered heuristics and recommendations as well.