I've seen more and more smug sites lately where the breadcrumb is hidden and is not replaced by an alternative, a way to identify the gallery, a way to (reasonably) navigate the site.

What's a breadcrumb (or breadcrumb trail) and why do I want one?

A breadcrumb serves two purposes in your smugmug galleries. It identifies the page the viewer is on, and it provides a way to easily navigate to other galleries. Here's a link to a definition in Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breadcrumb_(navigation).

The last entry in the breadcrumb shows the location in your site. That location is the name of something - a category, a subcategory, or a gallery.

The previous entry in the breadcrumb is a link to one level higher. If the page shows the contents of a gallery, then the previous entry represents the home of that gallery - either a subcategory or a category. If your site's visitor is looking at a gallery and wants to jump to see other galleries in that same gallery, the category entry in the breadcrumb can be used to jump to that other page.

In case you're not sure what the breadcrumb looks like on a smug site, you can see it in the line highlighted in yellow in the screen below.

Sometimes you don't want the breadcrumb to show. Maybe you have a gallery (unlisted or not) linked in your navbar and you don't want the user to be able to navigate to other galleries in the same category. That gallery probably doesn't need the breadcrumb because there is no reason to navigate elsewhere in the category. Examples of this type of gallery or page are an About me page, a Services page, a Pricing page. I'm sure there are many other examples of pages where you don't need the breadcrumb and where it might cause confusion if you included it there. By all means, hide the breadcrumb on those pages.

What if you just don't like way the breadcrumb looks?

You can remove the breadcrumb, but I recommend replacing the functionality of the breadcrumb with descriptive information and with links.

How will your visitor know what gallery he or she is viewing?

I am amazed at how many sites I've seen lately with the breadcrumb removed where the galleries show no information on what gallery the user is viewing. The place the gallery name shows by default is the breadcrumb. Remove the breadcrumb, and the gallery name is no longer shown. Your viewer has no idea of what he or she is looking at. None. I don't know about you, but I find it very frustrating to be looking at a gallery and have no idea what I am looking at. Yes, I'm looking at photos. But where were they taken? What is the artist trying to share with me?

Always identify your galleries. You can easily show the gallery name by adding it to the gallery description.

How can your visitor easily find other galleries in the same category or subcategory?

My other frustration? I wander to a photographer's site. I click to the galleries page. I select a category, then a subcategory, then a gallery. The breadcrumb isn't showing, so I don't have access to the path I traveled to get here. I happily look at photos for a while, clicking between the pages of the gallery that I selected. Now I'd like to see other galleries in the same category. But - I can't remember the name of the category. Without the breadcrumb or other navigational aids, I need to start at the top again. I need to hope I remember the category (and subcategory) I used to get to the gallery.

You don't like the breadcrumb? I fully understand that. I've removed it from my site because I am using html-only pages to replace smug's category and subcategory pages, and the breadcrumb will return the user to the standard pages, the pages I'm not using. I removed the smug-generated breadcrumb but I've replaced it with one of my own, so I haven't removed the navigation inherent in the breadcrumb.

You can still allow the user to wander your site without returning to the top. If you remove the breadcrumb from your site, add your own navigation to your gallery pages. You can do that by adding links to the gallery description.

The screen shot I included above was taken when I was logged in. The breadcrumb is hidden to visitors of my site, but I have included the gallery name and navigation in the gallery description. Here's a link to that gallery - http://www.denisegoldberg.com/gallery/6145242_yiNwf. The gallery description includes the name of the gallery as well as links to the subcategory and category where that gallery lives.

It may be that you're a professional photographer and you supply direct gallery links to your customers rather than having your customers browse through your galleries. In that case you don't need to supply navigation links, but I would argue that a gallery title (perhaps the name of your customer) would be appropriate.

If you still insist on removing the breadcrumb, you can use this CSS: .notLoggedIn #breadCrumbTrail { display: none; }

A better solution than removing the breadcrumb (but still taking advantage of the gallery name as shown in the breadcrumb) is to use jfriend's customization to Display breadcrumbs without categories or format different parts of the breadcrumb.

--- Denise

Wow, Denise! Thanks! Great write-up.

Originally Posted by DavidTO Wow, Denise! Thanks! Great write-up.

Thank you David. This has been bothering me for quite a while; it got to me enough lately that I thought it might be worth writing something.

--- Denise

Great post Denise and I agree!

Originally Posted by Aaron Jors Great post Denise and I agree!

Thanks Aaron.

I can only hope that the people who need to see this advice actually read the post and recognize that they should change their sites...

--- Denise

Originally Posted by denisegoldberg Thanks Aaron. I can only hope that the people who need to see this advice actually read the post and recognize that they should change their sites... --- Denise

Spot-on Denise...
I have taken your advice and just hidden the galleries that dont need the breadcrumb.
When you are used to navigating your own site and know where you are, I think you can lose site of what this is all about - visitors - and more often than not, they are new to your site and need a little help from us when we can...
Thanks again

You make a very compelling argument. I have hidden the breadcrumb trail because I did not care for it, and never really thought about the casual visitor. I have taken your advice and added an html link.

I use a text link to bring the visitor back to my category page, which isn't a real SmugMug category page but my own html only page, and use the drop down menu so visitors can see what other galleries are available and go straight to the one they want to see. All this is in every gallery description.

Sorry Gang ... still trying to get my first Jing capture to work. In the meantime, you can see what I'm saying here.



Admittedly, the drop down menu is a bit of a maintenance chore when adding new galleries, so it may not work for everybody, but it works for me so I thought I'd share.

Dropdown menus can be confusing to some viewers and mouse
hovering thru the drops and flyouts is difficult for some. I created
a page for those visitors that make navigating much simpler.
See my site and click "site index" in the navbar.

Originally Posted by Allen Dropdown menus can be confusing to some viewers and mouse hovering thru the drops and flyouts is difficult for some. I created a page for those visitors that make navigating much simpler. See my site and click "site index" in the navbar.

I can add that I have a strong dislike for drop down menus.

Dang guys ... just about every web site on the planet uses drop downs for navigation and/or for making choices. How confusing or bad can they really be ?

Originally Posted by DavidTO I can add that I have a strong dislike for drop down menus.

Just a quick question regarding the original 'breadcrumb' thread...
How do I change the colour of the breadcrumb text.
Mine is showing as WHITE text at present and I would like it to be something a little more subtle.
If this is posted somewhere else, just point me in the right direction

Originally Posted by pjspics Just a quick question regarding the original 'breadcrumb' thread... How do I change the colour of the breadcrumb text. Mine is showing as WHITE text at present and I would like it to be something a little more subtle. If this is posted somewhere else, just point me in the right direction

You can set any color you want with this in CSS

#breadCrumbTrail a.nav,
#breadCrumbTrail .title,
#breadCrumbTrail {color: #3399FF !important;}

Originally Posted by Allen You can set any color you want with this in CSS #breadCrumbTrail a.nav, #breadCrumbTrail .title, #breadCrumbTrail {color: #3399FF !important;}

Many thanks Al,

You even picked the right colour...
I assume that was you mooching about on my website, or was the colour choice a lucky guess?

Originally Posted by pjspics Many thanks Al, You even picked the right colour... I assume that was you mooching about on my website, or was the colour choice a lucky guess?

Another question about the bread crumb...
I can control whether it shows on specific galleries, but how do you remove it from specific catagories.
Example - Popular
http://www.paul-griffiths.net/popular/
I would like to be able to remove it from here if possible.
Another one is
http://www.paul-griffiths.net/customers

Originally Posted by pjspics Another question about the bread crumb... I can control whether it shows on specific galleries, but how do you remove it from specific catagories. Example - Popular http://www.paul-griffiths.net/popular/ I would like to be able to remove it from here if possible. Another one is http://www.paul-griffiths.net/customers

.popularGallery #breadCrumbTrail {display:none;}
.category_Customers #breadCrumbTrail {display:none;}

Originally Posted by jfriend .popularGallery #breadCrumbTrail {display:none;} .category_Customers #breadCrumbTrail {display:none;}

Perfect - thanks John

Denise, thank you for posting this. I see this on the help desk all the time. People will kill the breadcrumb because they don't like certain aspects of it.

Then a week later they email back crying that customers cannot navigate the site. Think before you act... I try to always advise people that if you do away with the breadcrumb, you must use something like a navbar. If not, no one will dig through your site. :-)

In the past someone responded to my comment about digging through the site saying that they did not want people digging through their site. That is fine by me. You made that choice.

As for drop downs and such. Poorly executed they can cause major problems with your viewers. Some browsers do not follow the settings you use correctly. Some portable devices to not support all drop down formats. And most importantly is that they can be maintenance nightmares. I have seen people delete portions of their site and forget to update the dropdowns. Then they wonder why the links do not work. The breadcrumb is at least updated automatically.

Thanks again Denise. You often say what I want to say from experience on the helpdesk.

Originally Posted by docwalker Denise, thank you for posting this. I see this on the help desk all the time. People will kill the breadcrumb because they don't like certain aspects of it. Then a week later they email back crying that customers cannot navigate the site. Think before you act... I try to always advise people that if you do away with the breadcrumb, you must use something like a navbar. If not, no one will dig through your site. :-) In the past someone responded to my comment about digging through the site saying that they did not want people digging through their site. That is fine by me. You made that choice. As for drop downs and such. Poorly executed they can cause major problems with your viewers. Some browsers do not follow the settings you use correctly. Some portable devices to not support all drop down formats. And most importantly is that they can be maintenance nightmares. I have seen people delete portions of their site and forget to update the dropdowns. Then they wonder why the links do not work. The breadcrumb is at least updated automatically. Thanks again Denise. You often say what I want to say from experience on the helpdesk.

I've just started recently adding a comment about site navigation to every post I make that has to do with helping someone hide the breadcrumb. Many people seem to not like it's looks, but are not thinking clearly about how people will go to a category, pick a gallery, view the gallery and then they are stuck with no way to pick another gallery. I had to explain to one wedding photographer that he had no way for people to easily view the four galleries he had for one wedding. Once they went into the first gallery, the only way to get to the second gallery was to go all the way back to the top of the site and start over drilling down into the site to get to the wedding again. It was pretty bad - both for the viewer and for someone trying to sell prints.

I sometimes wonder if a simple "up" button perhaps done graphically would be more pleasing aesthically to some and at least still offer the viewer a way to go up a level.

Originally Posted by jfriend I've just started recently adding a comment about site navigation to every post I make that has to do with helping someone hide the breadcrumb. Many people seem to not like it's looks, but are not thinking clearly about how people will go to a category, pick a gallery, view the gallery and then they are stuck with no way to pick another gallery.

Your comments helped push me over the edge to write this post so I owe you a thank you too - I've been noticing the same thing you have more and more. It was annoying me enough that I figured I'd try writing something to see if I could catch any eyes...

Originally Posted by docwalker Thanks again Denise. You often say what I want to say from experience on the helpdesk.

You're very welcome Doc!

--- Denise