Also, if you're going to use icons, make sure they fit in with the overall look of the site. Many sites use a little hierarchical outline at the top of each page, to good effect. Each of these items is clickable. This setup does not replace navbars, but exists in addition to them. Every page should still have a standard navbar, perhaps on a sidebar and also at the bottom.
Many sites use frames as part of their navigational strategy.
The frame with the content scrolls, but the frame with the navbar does not, so the navbar is always right there where the user can find it. Frames, however, have several drawbacks. Nothing looks stupider than a page full of content coming up in a narrow frame that was intended for the navbar. This file contains a list of directories that should not be indexed by visiting spiders. Never, ever have someone else's site come up inside one of your frames.