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Designing a Business Site
 

Why Does the Business Site Exist?

• Who is the site for?

• What are the demographics of site visitors?

• Why is the site needed?

• How is the success of the site measured?

Web Site Content

• Before you start typing HTML files, determine what content you need.
   
• What images do you need?

• What information do you need?

• How do we determine if our site is effective?

• What content already exists and what must be created?
   
• How often does the content change, or should it change?
   
• What resources are required to create and maintain the site?
   

Some Site Navigation Architectures

• Linear
  Web pages are designed to be read in sequence.
   
• Hierarchical
  Allows users to drill down to find the information they need.

  Rules of Thumb

  Don't make the user go more than three levels deep to reach any page in the site.

  Users don't mind navigation menus with up to seven or eight choices.
  

  Total Pages in Hierarchically Organized Site

  Depth	Links Per Page
  	2	3	4	5
  0	1	1	1	1
  1	3	4	5	6
  2	7	13	21	31
  3	15	40	85	156
  4	31	121	341	781
  5	63	364	1365	3806
  6	127	1090
  7	255
  8	511
  9	1024

   
  
• Full Mesh
  Only works when the number of pages is small.
   

  # Pages	# Links
  2	2
  3	6
  4	12
  5	20
  6	30
  7	42
  8	56
  9	72

   

The Type of Site Determines the Navigation Architecture

• Here is a diagram of how a site's purpose affects the architecture of the site.
   

Don't Make Me Think

• Don't Make Me Think is the title of a book on web design by Steve Krug (Circle.com, Pearson Technology, 2000).

  Here are some of his facts of life.

• Fact of Life #1: We don't read pages. We scan them.
  We are usually in a hurry.

  We know we don't need to read everything.

  We are good at it.

• Fact of Life #2: We don't make optimal choices.  We satisfice.

  Satisfice means to choose the first reasonable option, according to Gary Klein in
  Sources of Power: How People Make Decisions (MIT Press, 1998).

  We are usually in a hurry.

  There is not much penalty for guessing wrong.

  Weighing options may not improve our efficiency.

  Guessing is more fun.

• Fact of Life #3: We don't figure out how things work.  We muddle through.
  People do not like to read directions.

  People choose what takes less time in the short run, not in the long run.

  Web designers should avoid features that make the user think.

  Which or these button titles requires more thought?

                         

  What about this?
  Quick Search: Search By   Author Key Words Subject Title   

  Helping the User Navigate a Web Site
  Bread Crumbs record all the (recent) pages you have visited.

  See the site www.about.com

  A “You are here” indicator shows the path taken down the page hierarchy.
  See the site www.gap.com

  If you click on a navigation link, it should take you to a page with that title.
  If I click on the link Lug Nuts , I want to go to a page with title Lug Nuts,
  not Nuts, Spare Parts, or Error 404 (Page not found).

The Trunk Test

1. Take a user to a random page in a corporate web site.

2. Have him or her identify these items on that page:
   Site ID, Page Name, Persistent Navigation, Local Navigation, “You are here” Indicators, Search.

Perform the Trunk Test on this page from the LA Times web site:
www.latimes.com/news/science/environment

Items on the Home Page of a Corporate Site

• See the home page of  the Kraft Foods Company: www.kraft.com
   
• Some common items on a corporate home page:
  URL of the Site (useful if the URL is not obvious from the company name)

  Name of Company

  Corporate Logo

  Tag Line

  Welcome Blurb

  Home Page Title

   

• See these home pages:
  Disney: www.disney.com

  Ford Motor Company: www.ford.com

  IBM:  www.ibm.com

  British Petroleum Company: www.bp.com

  Pepsi: www.pepsi.com

  Cola Cola: www.cocacola.com

  New York Times: www.nytimes.com