Breadcrumb
A trail of links at the top of a page showing where you are, like Home / Projects / Website redesign.
What it is
A breadcrumb shows the path from the top of the app to the current page, with each step clickable. It answers "where am I?" and lets people jump back up a level in one click.
Breadcrumbs help in apps with nested levels: folders, product categories, settings sections. In a flat app with only a few pages, they add clutter.
A breadcrumb reflects the structure, not your browsing history. The back button is history.
How to ask for it
“When you're deep in a folder you get lost. Show where you are.”
“Add a breadcrumb above the page title showing the folder path, for example "All files / Clients / Acme". Each segment links to that folder, and the current folder is plain text.”
"Show where you are" could be a title or a highlighted menu item; "breadcrumb" names the clickable path and the prompt sets the format.
You've seen this in
- FFolder paths at the top of Google Drive
- ACategory trails on Amazon product pages
- GThe repository path in GitHub's file browser