ole wrote:Under certain circumstances they will appear to be repetitious but not always.
Everything in the top menu is repeated 100% of the time on the left, and usually on the bottom. The breadcrumb navigation, similarly, is 100% of the time repeated on the left. Always. At the least, lose the left or the top.
ole wrote:The breadcrumb, for instance, is useful because it makes your position with the site's categories more obvious to you.
This I do agree with. However, it could be combined with the three others to make a single navigation method that shows the current position better. Even if not, there is a strong value to the breadcrumb staying, with the left and bottom removed.
ole wrote:Some surfers choose to use only one methods to navigate and find the rest distracting but just as many will rely on different methods being available to them.
On the contrary, they aren't different methods (with the above noted exception of the breadcrumb). That means simple repetition.
ole wrote:I don't think there is anything wrong with allowing multiple ways to reach the same point, in fact it is good.
There are three things wrong with it:
1. It means repeated use of links with the same text, going to the same place, on the same site. Search engines penalize for that, as it looks like a link farm.
2. It wastes space that could be used for content. Most users look first for content, and then later look for links - only to help them find the content they want. Over 20% of the page is being used for repeated navigation.
3. Causes confusion instead of consistency. Reusing the same navigation system reinforces the user to trust that navigation, which results in higher satisfaction for the user.
ole wrote:As the site expands in content the value in this will seem more obvious.
Again I disagree. With more content, it will become more cluttered, and more confusing to the user - while also pushing out even more content from their view.
ole wrote:The only reason I mentioned the links on the bottom as being bad is because they are going against a web convention the states that different, less important links go there.
While not the only reason, that is a good reason also.