Being innovative with site designs can be crucial. Especially if you want to get some attention! If you place your links strategically and can confirm better usability your traffic is bound to increase. A few ideas are discussed.
News through the logo
Google and Yahoo have been doing something similar for years. I love it. Especially Google’s logo changes! They change their logo design to indicate or commemorate a special date. The recent trend is to put the current news about the site right up there on the logo.
Narrative Navigation
The top menu of the site can be designed to display a small description of what the site is about. Right below the top menu anchor text containing important links can be placed. This is a great short-cut to get the visitors acquainted with your site all the while guiding them through a few links.
Auto-Scrolling Featured Pieces
This trick has been bettered over time. The idea is to put a few of your key articles with colorful images side by side in an auto-scrolling banner. These days, hover-based slowdown and previous/next options have been included.
Dual Tabs
Although the norm is to have only a single top-level tab, dual tabs allow the visitors to filter the content better.
Using the Homepage Better
Sometimes, it can be really helpful to describe your product right on the homepage. As this is the page likely to have the greatest amount of traffic, it is helpful to describe your process or product on the first go.
Image Overlay
One of the unpleasant browsing features is the opening of a new window when an image is clicked. Instead of opening a new page for displaying that picture you can choose to use ‘pop up overlay’ for the image. With the page still visible in the background it gives the viewer a better browsing experience.
User Involvement Based Navigation
You can opt for sidebars offering users to sign up, login or take a tour. This can involve the user in site activities.
Turn the waiting list to a winning ticket
You can try disguising the beta invites as “golden tickets”. It always helps to make the users feel they have won something.
You’ll figure some more ways by yourself as you go along.
