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>> Site Planning >> Part
Two: Information Architecture
Part Two: Information Architecture
 Back
to Phase One: Conceptual Planning
This involves deciding what content will be in the
site and how it will be organized within the navigation scheme
and file structure.
I: Organize Content
This step involves building a structure
for the site that will hold the information and offer the
functionality described in the creative brief. It should end
with a storyboard or branching document that outlines the
file structure of the Web site, showing what pages the site
will include, the filenames of each page, and what kinds of
information each page will contain. This will visually illustrate
how the content will be organized in the hyperlinked structure
of the Web.
Determine the major categories of information
that you want to provide. Then list the specific pages you think
are associated with each category. Using this site as an example,
the site architecture is built around 5 main categories: Course,
Communication, Production, Software, and Student Work.
The Course topic contains information such
as: syllabus, assignment descriptions and class calendar.
The Communication topic includes information
on Web site planning, the aesthetics of communicating with motion
and sound, and links to other inspiration Web sites.
The Production topic covers programming and
producing Web content in HTML, JavaScript, ActionScript/Flash,
and using Dreamweaver to Manage and maintain a Web site.
The Software section lists specific help pages
and tutorials for each of the software packages used in this class:
Photoshop, Fireworks, Flash, Dreamweaver, ImageReady.
The Student Work section contains links to
the current semester's class with a link to each students course
site.
II.
Organize Files: Information Architecture
Organize how you will set up file structure,
and how users will navigate the site. For example, a user will
probably not be able to access every single page within a site
from one page, how do you organize the content so that a user
can intuitively anticipate where they might find specific information?
Example 1, This site: each of the main
categories (Course, Communication, Production, Software, Student
Work) are housed in a separate folder. Subcategories are housed
in subfolders within these. Users can access these topics from
the left hand menu, a pulldown menu at the top, the site map,
or the search engine.
View
this Simple organizational chart
and Screenshot of folder
organization
Example 2, Poems that Go: only the poems
are in a separate folder (gallery) all of the other files are
in the root directory. What do you think the benefits are of organizing
the files this way?
View this organizational
chart with screenshot of folder organization to see how the
architecture is set up.
Organizing your architecture:
Before designing your site, create a folder on your disk where
you will keep all of your files for this new Web site. Then create
any subfolders that might exist. Keep your images inside a separate
images folder.
To include in your Final Documentation: You
will create a simple organization chart like the example
above. There should not be any Raw Graphics (files with the following
extensions: .psd, .png, .fla) inside your Local Root Folder, and
you should remove all unnecessary files.
 See
How
to organize your file structure in Dreamweaver for your final
site project
Next Section: Part
Three, Designing in Photoshop
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