AusWeb99 Front Door SiteMap Structure:Doors Principle 1 Principle 2 BACK to Doors
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AusWeb99 Front Door SiteMap Structure:Doors Principle 1 Principle 2 BACK to Doors |
Drawing the flow charts and mind maps of information clustering assists the next part of web construction, designing the windows and doors, or the links. These are the narrative device that are the equivalence of the pages and book bindings in print media. We make the intent of the web site clear or obscure, make it easy or hard work with the clustering and placement of navigation links on the page.
Links to an information cluster perhaps need to be grouped together on the web page. The structural charts indicate the different families of information - say 'sales', 'about us', 'newsletter'. Currently, it is typical web design policy for links to be simply grouped one under the other on the left of the page. This list does not contain any extra information as to meaning. Spread the three families of links over the width of the page and extra information is added. The extra information is 'these links are not the same'.
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Figure 1 - 1. An undifferentiated list, 2. Clustered and spread families of links
In Figure 1 first column (1) gives a listing of links without clustering or indicative priorities, the second (2) begins to cluster but link names tell little of what lies at the other end of the link.
Go to Figure 2
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AusWeb99 Front Door SiteMap Structure:Doors Principle 1 Principle 2 BACK to Doors |