If you are going to categorize pages in those drop downs based on the parent item, then the pages for those categories should exist. And likewise, if you choose to use breadcrumbs, that category should be in the breadcrumbs and should be a link to the page. You can't make the "/sports" a 404 or go back to the home page because the former is just bad usability practice, since URLs that look like a folder structure ARE going to get treated that way, and the latter is very confusing to the user.
In addition, since you are creating the category pages, then you should make those top level navigation items links as well. This is actually good design practice because it makes things a lot easier and accessible for those that have disabilities and even for those (admittedly very few people at this point) that turn off javascript or otherwise stop your menus from working. You need to think of those landing pages as not just "category" pages, but also as a means to increase your site's visibility and also it's ability to help your users. A "sports" page can provide a lot more information than just a list of subcategories or pages. If you have a good strategy for your content, you can use that page to drive search traffic to your site and also provide some great content for your users that manage to get to that page by whatever means. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=46723 ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [email protected] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
