Landmark regions (navigation, main, footer) supply structure beyond headings

What it is

Headings nest chapters. A page also has another set of parts: landmark regions — which block is navigation, which is main content, which is the footer, which is the site banner. Landmarks do not replace headings. They answer “which part of the page am I in”; headings answer “which chapter am I in.” Together they give a jump-by-part door and a jump-by-chapter door.

A page can have a complete chapter tree and still force people to walk every header link before they know where the body starts, if it has no landmarks.

Why it happens

Layout is spatial partition: top bar, side rail, body, footer. People who can see read the partition from position; people who cannot need the partition named as regions. Landmarks are those names. A main-content landmark marks “the body starts here” as a directly reachable point; a navigation landmark fences a repeating link set off from the body; a content-info landmark parks legal and secondary links elsewhere.

Landmarks are orthogonal to headings. An article can hold a full heading tree inside main; a navigation landmark should not grow a second heading tree that competes with the body. Reusing the same landmark kind without a distinguishable name (three regions all called “navigation”) produces a list of un-selectable duplicates. Too many landmarks equal none: the list fills with minor regions and the main-content entry is drowned.

Studying it

Open the reader’s landmark list, record kinds, counts and whether names distinguish them, then have people complete “jump to the body,” “jump to primary navigation,” “jump to the footer” without using the heading list.

Independent variables: presence of a main landmark, whether navigation landmarks are named, count of duplicate names, total landmark count. Dependent variables: success and key-press count on the three jump tasks, entries into the wrong region.

Compare pages with a heading tree only against pages with landmarks plus headings. The heading tree solves chapters; landmarks solve parts. Tasks must be about parts, or the test collapses back onto headings. Sample multi-rail admin tools and marketing pages — the former shatter landmarks, the latter omit main.

Where it stops holding

A short, single-column note with almost no repeating navigation gains less from landmarks, but a main landmark is still worth keeping as a stable “skip the header” target. Native header, nav, main and footer already are landmarks; stacking a same-named role on top duplicates the entry. Embedded maps or players that each declare main collide with the page’s main; embeds should use a more specific region rather than a second main. Paper layouts and image-only PDFs have no such region model.

Applying it

• Mark banner, primary navigation, main and footer. If a complementary rail or search exists, mark those too, and give a second navigation a distinguishable name (“footer navigation,” not another “navigation”).
• One main region per page. Components must not declare their own main.
• Keep the landmark list short. Do not mark decorative wrappers as regions.
• How to check: using the landmark list only, no headings, reach the body, the primary navigation and the footer. Failure to arrive, or a list of indistinguishable duplicates, is a fail.

Related

• Same group: J2.14.1 Heading levels must nest sequentially and must not skip levels for visual effect · J2.14.2 A page typically has one top-level heading that names the page topic · J2.14.4 Marking non-heading emphasis as headings dilutes their navigation value
• Nearby: J3.03 Skip to Main Content · J5.01 Screen Readers · J2.08 Reading Order
• Search terms: landmarks · main content region · navigation landmark