| Thus, before any coding starts, gather, sort and
organize your content. The more time spent on this, the more success visitors will have on
your site. Card Sorting
Card sorting is a popular ways to organize groups of
information. Get a set of blank cards and do as follows:
Create cards for all topics on the site.
For example, on a sport site, create cards for Football, Basketball, and Hockey etc.
Sub-divide these categories into Leagues,
Players, and Venues and so forth.
Label these and cross-reference cards that
overlap.
Create the optimum navigation structure
based on your cards.
Test it by performing mock tasks, such as
how do I find information on Tiger Woods between 1999-2001.
Flowcharts
Use these to outline the site structure, identify pages, navigation paths and content
labels. Flowcharts offer an advantage in that everyone in the development process can see
the site’s structure and make suggestions to alter or delete sections where
necessary.
Breakdown Each Page
For each section, prepare an itemized list of contents.
Include all text, images, sounds, video clips, audio clips, applets and downloadable
items. List all links and their destination pages.
Separate links which appear on all pages from those
appearing on specific pages only. Use Excel or Word to create this list as you can use
color-codes for reference.
By breaking down each page, you also clarify each pages
objectives and role.
Design for Breadth
Usability research shows that users get disorientated after the third level of depth on a
site.
Therefore, help users find content within three clicks.
If you can’t achieve this with the current design, start again — the rewards
will be worth the efforts. |
I'm Ivan Walsh, the person behind this site. I help people improve how they write, publish and extend their business assets.