Navigation Questions: Sitemaps and Breadcrumbs
Good navigation is intuitive and does not require sitemaps
Breadcrumbs can be useful for very deep sites
Recent useit says
Site maps are a secondary navigation feature — a humble role that they share with breadcrumbs.
Indeed, the arguments in favor of site maps are the same as the arguments for breadcrumbs:
From http://www.useit.com/alertbox/sitemaps.html
- They don't hurt people who don't use them.
- They do help a few people.
- They incur very little cost.
However only 7% users use them...
Evidence they also can help with SEO