Breadcrumb navigation (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia’s article on breadcrumb navigation: a graphical control element showing users their location within a site or application hierarchy, named after the trail of breadcrumbs in the Hansel and Gretel fairy tale.
License: CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Key points
- Three types: location (static, shows current position in the site hierarchy — most common on the web), attribute (categorizes the current page by its tags or metadata — suited to e-commerce and content libraries), path (shows the sequence of pages actually visited — rare, equivalent to browser history).
- Standard placement: a horizontal strip positioned below the site masthead/header and above the main content, so it’s visible without scrolling but doesn’t compete with primary navigation.
- Standard visual convention: levels separated by
>,›,/, or graphical icons; each level except the current page is a clickable link. - Limitation: location breadcrumbs work poorly for content that belongs to multiple categories simultaneously — in those cases, a tag system may complement or replace the breadcrumb, which can only show one path through the hierarchy.
- Alternative name in French/Spanish: fil d’Ariane (Ariadne’s thread), referencing the mythological thread that guided Theseus back through the labyrinth — same concept, LIFO rather than FIFO metaphor.
- Research-backed usability: external links reference usability studies (Rogers & Chaparro 2003; Hull 2004) confirming breadcrumbs aid orientation, particularly when users arrive via search engines rather than navigating from the homepage.
Images
breadcrumb-nav-example.png— KDE Dolphin file manager showing location-based breadcrumb navigation, with one node’s dropdown expanded to reveal its sibling folders; illustrates the pattern’s core interaction model even in a desktop rather than web context