Contents:
(the pages on this site)
Home
Page A
Page B <--
Page C
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Understanding Site Design:
Repeating Patterns Organize Information
One of the keys to understanding site design is
realizing your site is a collection of pages, like a
book, but they aren't bound together like a book, so people
can wander into your site without coming through the front door.
So it is vital to see how a
consistent layout (i.e. it is repeated on pages all over the
site) organizes information, and so lets the reader know where
things are, where they are, and even lets them predict where
things will be -- key to successful navigation.
Not
to mention the credibility that good organization affords a site.
Navigation Aids: Helping the Reader Know "Where" They Are
The Standard: Left-Hand Scan/Link Column
Take a look to the left, at the way the links to the various pages
in this website "work". Pop back and forth between the Home page
and pages A, B and C. Notice that whatever page you are "on" on
the site is 1) no longer a link, 2) becomes bold, and 3) has an
arrow emphasizing too, and all of these
things work together to let the reader know "where" they are.
Another Common Scheme: The "Navbar"
Another common way of helping the reader literally see just
where they are on your site is often called a navbar. The
example navbar for this site is under the main header. Like the
system set up with the contents column on the left, the navbar
highlights where you are, making visible where you are and where
you can go.
Header Three
Here is a place where you can have a main text column. You can write
more substantial chunks of text, articles, etc. Yada yada yada, blah
blah blah blah blah. Ricky don't lose that number, you don't wanna call
nobody else. Send it off in a letter, toooo yourself.
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