14.1 The Navigation Diamond

The navigation diamond (figure I.77) consists of a set of buttons enclosed in a diamond-shaped border. The buttons contain arrows pointing left, up, right, and down. The center of the navigation diamond displays the detail level (see figure I.71) of the current node. The navigation diamond allows the user to travel between nodes either by level, or by following a path.

Figure I.77 Navigation diamond

Traversal by levels using the navigation diamond is tantamount to reading the text at various levels. Clicking on the left arrow will take the reader to the previous node of the same level. Clicking the up arrow will take them up a level, and clicking the down arrow has an analogous effect. Using this tool, a user can step back to see an overview of what is being presented by just hitting the up-arrow button.