On the Usability News site, Breadcrumb Navigation: An Exploratory Study of Usage:
This exploratory study was conducted to determine whether participants used the breadcrumb trail as a navigational tool within a site. We found the overall usage of the breadcrumb in site navigation to be low. Breadcrumb users were not found to be more efficient than users who did not use the breadcrumb. Participants used a variety of navigational means, such as the Back button, left and top navigation bars, and searching to find the information instead of or in addition to the breadcrumb tool.
Interesting findings. Note that this is an "exploratory" study, and they only tested two websites. Clearly, more research is needed in this area.
I'm generally a big fan of breadcrumbs, especially for larger sites with more complex navigation. I also think they can help "ground" users by clearly showing where a page sits in relation to others on the site.
A side note: there are a number of other good articles in the Feb. '03 issue of Usability News. For example, Cascading versus Indexed Menu Design.
Posted by Karl
February 6, 2003 09:47 PM