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1. Information Architecture
This is the aspect of Web design that is the hardest to define and in some ways the hardest to do. Part of the reason is because if you do an excellent job with the architecture of your Web site, no one will notice. Bleh!
But, Gif Girl always says that information architecture is like good underwear; it's always a more comfortable experience when you start out with a good foundation. And that's exactly what information architecture is: the process of organizing the content and services of your Web site into logical groupings so it is intuitive. What does that mean?
Well, you know when someone has their kitchen set up really well so that the first drawer you check, you find the utensils, which was exactly what you were looking for? That's a great example of information architecture in the real world. It's placing things in groups and in relationship to each other that allows the user to easily find what they are looking for.
How can you get this foundation for your Web site? Well, Gif Girl always promotes the latest in hardware and software solutions, so she'll share with you one of her top secret tools for information architecture development:
Index Cards (Just 99 cents/pack!)
Yes, plain old index cards are where it's at. Just make a card for each piece of content or service that you'll be including in your site (ex: my feedback page, my biography, my list of links to online Web design resources, my family photo album, my guestbook, and my family tree). Then write on each card what the communication goals for the page are, and any navigation issues. Here's an example.
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Gif Girl's Feedback Page
Communication Goal of this page:
To invite all of my friends to contact me and tell me what they think of my Web site.
Content Components:
Paragraph of copy inviting feedback. E-mail form.
Navigation Issues:
Easy access to my guestbook, another way to leave me a message. (NOTE: Guestworld guestbooks are powered by Tripod, and available FREE to the entire Web building
community.)
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Then, you take all your cards and lay them on the floor. Start to group them together in a way that makes sense. The guestbook and the feedback page are both ways to contact Gif Girl, so they would be grouped together. Likewise, Gif Girl's family tree and her family photo album can be grouped together as personal information about her family.
Now, shuffle the cards and hand them to a friend. See how s/he groups them. This is especially helpful when you have been looking at the cards way too long to be objective about where things should live and what would make sense to a visitor. For a more in-depth explanation of this process, check out Sun Microsystem's white paper on User Interface Design at http://www.sun.com/sun-on-net/uidesign/.
Soon, you'll see an architecture for your site developing. Draw a site map, which shows the different components and where they live. This will help create a directory structure and organization for your site that makes it much easier for visitors to use and much easier for you to develop navigation and graphic design, but we'll get to that in a moment....
next: Layout & Navigation>>
What IS Web Design, Anyway?
<<back to intro
1. Information architecture
2. Layout & Navigation
3. Graphic Design & Visual Identity
Gif Girl, when she isn't out saving the world from dithered graphics and illegible Web pages, helps keep Tripod's pages running fast and furious.
Send your comments, ideas, suggestions, and of course, your solutions for saving the world from bad Web page design, to Gif Girl. She'd love to hear from you.
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