Create a navigation scheme

Navigation Schemes explained with samples

A navigation scheme is the number of levels and the amount of freedom to link between levels that you will build into your site. To help you with this concept, think about the basic web site—a home or index page and other pages. The home page is level one and the other pages are level two. Usually a reader can link from the home page to every major subunit in the site.

For instance a site could have two levels and limited freedom. Suppose that in your site for parents you have two major subunits—restaurants with play areas and restaurants without play areas. From the home page a viewer could link to one or the other. But if the viewer is in "with" and wants to read "without," he or she would have to return from "with" to the home page and then open "without." Sample two level site.

A site with three levels and limited freedom would have a home page, two pages simply listing restaurants with and without play areas, and then multiple pages describing each restaurant. To get to any particular "with" restaurant, the reader would have to open the home page, click on the "with" link, click on the restaurant link, and then read the description. To read about a second restaurant the reader would have to click back to the "with" list and then click on another restaurant. To read about a "without" restaurant the reader would have to click back to the home page and then click forward through the new list.

Can you see that limited freedom is a bit annoying? Lots of clicking on links. To offset that problem Web designers add more freedom by adding more links. So for instance the designer might put at the bottom of each page of description a set of links to all the other restaurants in the site or maybe to all the other restaurants in the category. While this second arrangement is more complicated to make, it is easier to use.

To help yourself with this aspect of planning, make a site map. Draw boxes and arrows that indicate content and links.

Create a template

A template is a model of what each page will look like. To make a template you need to make a series of decisions:

What color is the background?
What font will you use?
What color is the text font?
What size and font are the headings?
Where will you place any visuals?
How will you present the text?
Where will you place any links to other sections of the site?

These decisions need to be made in accord with your mission statement. For instance your site for parents might have

Yellow background
Comic Sans MS 12 point orange font for text
Comic Sans MS 24 point green font for headings
Visuals on the left (to emphasize them)
Text in list form
Links to other restaurants on the left
Links to the home page and to the other subunit at the top

This list covers many basic items to consider but the experience of creating a site will raise other questions. For instance should links and the title of the page to which they link always have exactly the same words? Should each link have a brief summary accompanying it? Should the title of each new page be in exactly the same relative position on each page? Experience will help you both find and make these decisions.

Template Planning

Sample Template

Create a content list, both textual and visual

To create a content list is to itemize all the material relevant to your site's mission statement. For the restaurant site, this material could be phone numbers, addresses, menus, prices, photographs, video clips, maps, write-ups of visits, and evaluations of meals and services.

List all the items you need to collect based on your goal and your relationship to your audience.

Content List Planning

<< BACK	PAGE | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |	NEXT >>