With primary navigation established, it’s time to drill deeper into each section.įor most websites under 50 pages, a second level of structure should be sufficient.
If your site map design outlines 10+ elements, there might be an opportunity to consolidate. Even though 7 items or less is a UX Myth, it’s still important to practice brevity.
There’s no magic number to how many elements live in your primary navigation.
Omnigraffle sitemap stencils full#
Be concise – each element should target 1 to 5 words (‘About’, ‘Contact Us’) rather than full sentences.Your sitemap’s primary navigation should… Though there’s a case against vertical navigation, some websites still take this approach (e.g. Define primary navigation Primary navigation of includes 8 concise elements ranging from one to four wordsĪlso referred to as “1st Tier”, “Main”, “Top Level”, or “Global”, primary navigation is typically found at the top of a website in a horizontal design. HELPFUL HINTįollow the 80/20 rule of content (80% valuable content / 20% promotion) 3. Give yourself the freedom to think openly - even wildly! Bad content ideas will naturally work their way out with time. What services/products are we marketing? How much company info will be presented? Do we have testimonials? What helpful resources can we provide?ĭon’t focus on where that content goes in the sitemap just yet (Step #4). Brainstorm the types of contentīefore you start defining navigational elements (Step #3), you’ll need to discuss your website’s content. The diversity of company, industry, service and product knowledge will be beneficial. Research – What are the website’s objectives? Who are our users? What kind of information do they need? What does our analytics tell us?ĭon’t assume that Marketing and Sales know it all - involve various departments.Who are these people? Are they the right people? People – Key stakeholders should contribute to the sitemap design.Does your organization have the necessary collaboration time? Time – A strong sitemap isn’t designed in 20 minutes.Prepare for the activity of sitemappingīefore jumping into your site map design, you’ll need to prime the pump by addressing three areas: Page notes and high-level specifications.Define secondary & tertiary level hierarchy.Prepare for the activity of sitemapping.How do you plan the structure of a website? Here are the 8 steps: A website’s sitemap is a deliverable of Information Architecture 8 steps to plan & create a website structure with a site map How critical? Well, bad information architecture causes most user failures. Sitemapping is a critical phase to the structure of a website because it represents a crucial deliverable of information architecture (IA) - the foundation to the five competencies of user experience design.
blue = primary navigation) Why is website sitemapping important? Colors are used to represent the different tiers of navigation (e.g. There’s only a handful of activities that should precede this step (e.g. The end deliverable can be a sketch, image, PDF, or presented in a tool like SlickPlan (my full list of sitemapping tools towards bottom).Ī website’s sitemap should be defined early in the website planning process. Sitemapping is the visual process of outlining a website’s structure, high-level functionality and navigation scheme. Similarly to how floor plans communicate a home’s structure, a sitemap communicates a website’s structure.ĭesigning a detailed sitemap involves eight steps, and each step will prevent a “wing it” approach during your website planning and build clarity and confidence along the way. Would you break ground on a new home that didn’t have approved floor plans? Are you OK with improvising for the next few months? Will your team of contractors be confident in the final result? (If you said ‘yes’, please stick with your day job!) Pretend you’re a home builder for a moment.
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