Information Scent Last Updated April 2026 Visitors may land on a web page from search or an external link and not know how the page fits into the context of other content on your website. It can be confusing. Helping them understanding where they are in the menu can help. It’s a best practice to provide clues about where a page is in the hierarchy of the website. The usual design tactic for this is to use a visual menu trail, breadcrumb menu or secondary navigation menu, but prominent calls to action and sidebar touts can also help. Somehow the page you are on should indicated other pages that are related, giving the visitor an information scent to follow. On this page Menu Trail Secondary Menu Breadcrumb Menu Other Menu Trail A visual design element in the menu, such as a color or style difference indicating the parent items in the menu is called a visual menu trail. Example The Donors & Friend page of the College website, https://finearts.utexas.edu/support/college-fine-arts-advisory-council is a child page of the Campus and Community section in the Who We Are section of the menu. It is indicated by these parent items displaying as orange and underlined in addition to the page itself. Secondary Menus Adding a secondary menu for the section that the page is in can also help. Example On this Apply page https://theatredance.utexas.edu/apply an additional menu is added to the page. Breadcrumb Menu Similar to adding a secondary menu is to add a menu called a breadcrumb. Typically these are small and horizontal. It’s difficult to use this design pattern accurately on a large website. Example The Department of Art and Art History, uses this convention: https://art.utexas.edu/academics/undergraduate/advising Other While the menus are very important other pieces of content you add to the page may contribute to providing an information scent to the visitor. Consider the calls to action you could add to the page and if there is a way to add a helpful tout in the sidebar or some other aside content to improve the visitors understanding. The first step is to think carefully about your audience. Consider where you want them to go next on your site and if they came to the page without any other context, would they know what they need?
