Re: [IxDA Discuss] Site Map Design - Best Practices
The free market is the final arbiter, yes. But that in NOT analogous to a proof-is-in-the-pudding philosophy. Sure, when you are designing on the bleeding edge, which many of us are clearly mistaken to thinking we are or should be, you can't rely on the past to in form your actions. I could stretch cooking farther, but I'll avoid it. I mentioned architecture before, and it remains a good example. Sure, if you are building a mile tall tower out of used beer cans and hoping to use high-altitude air flow to cool the tower, yes, you'll have to do a lot of testing and a lot of research to do it. You'll need to be a god of the craft. But that isn't what they teach at architecture school. And it isn't what we should be teaching every tom dick and harry who wants to learn the bread and butter of IxD. If there is anything the vast majority of websites need to learn it is that tried and true mechanics, coupled with interesting services or products, will enable FAR more in the way of profit than will seat-of-your-pants cutting-edge interaction. Make sure the bloody house won't fall down. Don't install a spinning spiral staircase or an indoor-outdoor pool. In other words. The vast majority of IxD CAN be predicted. Because it is based on long-standing interaction methods that we KNOW the validity of. Or at least we should know. Many of the people out there doing IxD don't know they are doing it. Our focus should be on educating everyone on what is known, not hypothesizing about some fanciful new interaction. Take this thread. We KNOW that site maps are a poor idiom that is a fall-back that people use only when all other means for getting the information they want fail. There are 3 SURE FIRE ways to avoid them and to never need them: Build a search system that finds the results people want. If you are using some other technology like a Google Search Appliance, keep the targeted results list up to date. If a lot of people are looking for store hours, make the store hours pages appear at the top in offset colors when they search for "hours" "store hours" and such. Build a functional menu system that favors the popular, not what you want to promote. Make each level give more clarity into the section the user has chosen, and repeat things in multiple sections if users appear to be looking for them there also. Consolidate. Not all topics need to be segmented into new pages. Not all sections need to cross-link beyond the main menu. If there isn't enough clarity between the "Leaders" and "Organization" sections. Maybe there should just be one and not both. If we suggest, even for a second, that pushing an average site out in a poor state just to get feedback is the only way to make it good, we defeat ourselves. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=37339 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Site Map Design - Best Practices
Mike, Are you suggesting that if the people eating the food don't like it, it can still be a"good" dish because the chef is proud of their accomplishment? Of course, quality is in the eyes of the judges. That's why Jim Carrey is upset that he never won an academy award for "Ace Ventura", even though he considers it one of his best performances. So, if you would put your judgment of the design over your users, then I wish you all the success. We can think we've done a good job, but are we, ourselves, the final arbiter of the quality of our own work? Jared On Jan 20, 2009, at 10:17 AM, Mike Caskey wrote: Aha! Jared, your cooking metaphor framed up an interesting issue in my mind... Sometimes we do good design, even when our users don't know it. We design things that we know will be good for the user, even though they might not end up sending back tons of positive feedback. I completely agree that "the user is always right", but I also know they don't always tell you when you're cooking is good... because they don't know it. Maybe it doesn't taste amazing, but it's high in protein and antioxidants! :) Don't get me wrong, the user is always my compass, but occasionally you design things because you know better, not because you know they'll like it. It is for those cases when "good" is more readily defined by analytics, heat mapping, sales, or other forms of "pulses". Lots of web marketers call it "grokking" your customers... knowing what they want or need, without actually hearing them say it. That was a bit off the cuff, so I hope it made sense... Mike C. Jared Spool wrote: On Jan 19, 2009, at 10:48 AM, Cindy Lu wrote: A practical issue is you don't know if you have designed a great site unless the site is put into use and feedback is collected. Isn't that true of anything? You don't know if you've cooked a good dinner until you "put it into use" and collect feedback, no? Jared Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Site Map Design - Best Practices
Aha! Jared, your cooking metaphor framed up an interesting issue in my mind... Sometimes we do good design, even when our users don't know it. We design things that we know will be good for the user, even though they might not end up sending back tons of positive feedback. I completely agree that "the user is always right", but I also know they don't always tell you when you're cooking is good... because they don't know it. Maybe it doesn't taste amazing, but it's high in protein and antioxidants! :) Don't get me wrong, the user is always my compass, but occasionally you design things because you know better, not because you know they'll like it. It is for those cases when "good" is more readily defined by analytics, heat mapping, sales, or other forms of "pulses". Lots of web marketers call it "grokking" your customers... knowing what they want or need, without actually hearing them say it. That was a bit off the cuff, so I hope it made sense... Mike C. Jared Spool wrote: On Jan 19, 2009, at 10:48 AM, Cindy Lu wrote: A practical issue is you don't know if you have designed a great site unless the site is put into use and feedback is collected. Isn't that true of anything? You don't know if you've cooked a good dinner until you "put it into use" and collect feedback, no? Jared Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Site Map Design - Best Practices
hmmm Somewhere in between is reality and sanity. You obviously don't need to put everything in front of users to test. But the all seeing, all knowing ixd'r has yet to exist. Surely there are consultants and practitioners who will position themselves as such, but (IMHO) they are fools. Leveraging education and experience to make calls is a large part of our job. We are in a young and changing profession. And, we (as a profession) are at the heart of some much innovation. If you innovate, you MUST test. If you are working in an unfamiliar area (industry, user segment, etc) you must undertake upfront research. To do otherwise is simply irresponsible and unprofessional. and for what it s worth... the dinner analogy is an excellent one... but leave the recipe's to the amateurs. Mark On Tue, Jan 20, 2009 at 10:11 AM, William Brall wrote: > I disagree, Jared and Cindy. > > The idea that you can't determine if your product is good or bad is > the very thing IxD was created to combat. The fact that we exist at > all is proof that you can boil these abstract things down to a > process you can follow that will provide consistently good results. > > If you, as an IxD can't look at a piece of software and tell what is > wrong. You are a failure in this industry. > > Saying you can't tell in a dinner is good until you eat it betrays > how you make dinner. It isn't a truism. > > Sure, if you cobble together a meal from a variety of ingredients and > add in spices and herbs at a whim. You might discover something great. > You also might give your party salt poisoning. > > But if you follow a recipe you've followed before, follow it > precisely and use good tools (like an oven thermometer rather than > trusting the built-in one) you'll produce a good meal every time. > > This is what IxD is supposed to be. If it weren't. What the crap are > we all claiming to be professionals for? If our work is a crap-shoot? > > The fact of the matter is, if we have gathered enough well-formed > data about something, we can know if it will produce results or not. > > Anyone here who suggests otherwise isn't an IxD. It is the very core > of our product. It is our chattel, our wares. > > I'm astounded that so many of us here seem to have fallen into this > trap. I had thought we had buried this primitive religion along with > our other gods. > > You DO know if you've designed a great site. All you have to do is > open your eyes and be self-critical. Apply your training as an IxD > and you'll know. As verily as an architect knows his house design > won't fall down. To put it to fate would be malpractice. To rely of > pudding-proof for IxD is malpractice. > > > . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . > Posted from the new ixda.org > http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=37339 > > > > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org > Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe > List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines > List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Site Map Design - Best Practices
I disagree, Jared and Cindy. The idea that you can't determine if your product is good or bad is the very thing IxD was created to combat. The fact that we exist at all is proof that you can boil these abstract things down to a process you can follow that will provide consistently good results. If you, as an IxD can't look at a piece of software and tell what is wrong. You are a failure in this industry. Saying you can't tell in a dinner is good until you eat it betrays how you make dinner. It isn't a truism. Sure, if you cobble together a meal from a variety of ingredients and add in spices and herbs at a whim. You might discover something great. You also might give your party salt poisoning. But if you follow a recipe you've followed before, follow it precisely and use good tools (like an oven thermometer rather than trusting the built-in one) you'll produce a good meal every time. This is what IxD is supposed to be. If it weren't. What the crap are we all claiming to be professionals for? If our work is a crap-shoot? The fact of the matter is, if we have gathered enough well-formed data about something, we can know if it will produce results or not. Anyone here who suggests otherwise isn't an IxD. It is the very core of our product. It is our chattel, our wares. I'm astounded that so many of us here seem to have fallen into this trap. I had thought we had buried this primitive religion along with our other gods. You DO know if you've designed a great site. All you have to do is open your eyes and be self-critical. Apply your training as an IxD and you'll know. As verily as an architect knows his house design won't fall down. To put it to fate would be malpractice. To rely of pudding-proof for IxD is malpractice. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=37339 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Site Map Design - Best Practices
On Jan 19, 2009, at 10:48 AM, Cindy Lu wrote: A practical issue is you don't know if you have designed a great site unless the site is put into use and feedback is collected. Isn't that true of anything? You don't know if you've cooked a good dinner until you "put it into use" and collect feedback, no? Jared Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Site Map Design - Best Practices
imho the term 'sitemap' is best used to refer to the protocol supported by Google, Yahoo! et al to enable better crawling of resources by spiders thought the use of an xml file. http://www.sitemaps.org/faq.php . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=37339 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Site Map Design - Best Practices
On 19 Jan 2009, at 14:58, Maria Cordell wrote: [snip] On a related note, SEO companies I've dealt with always want a site map and advocate for listing every single thing you can possibly reference on the site, and then some. [snip] I think you need to find some better SEO companies :-) The only time I've ever seen site maps like this make any difference is when some of the links on the sitemap are to pages that cannot be reached any other way... which I think everybody will admit is a sign of a larger problem! If folk are recommending site maps for search engine bots then there is something very wrong with the site copy, or the site navigation. Cheers, Adrian Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Site Map Design - Best Practices
Jared, Thanks for sharing your insights, very thought provoking. I read your article and agree your point of treating symptom vs. solving the root cause. The message from that article (to me) is: don't put energy to improve the site map. It does not say: let's not to design a site map at all. A practical issue is you don't know if you have designed a great site unless the site is put into use and feedback is collected. Thanks! - Cindy > Focus on creating great information scent across the entire site and then > you won't have to worry about the site map. > > That's my opinion. Worth what you paid for it. > > Jared > > Jared M. Spool > User Interface Engineering > 510 Turnpike St., Suite 102, North Andover, MA 01845 > e: jsp...@uie.com p: +1 978 327 5561 > http://uie.com Blog: http://uie.com/brainsparks Twitter: jmspool > UIE Web App Summit, 4/19-4/22: http://webappsummit.com > > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Site Map Design - Best Practices
Maria referred to my article on how site maps are a design cop-out. A more reliable link is here: http://www.uie.com/articles/Sitemap/ As for Cindy's points, here's my opinions: On Jan 19, 2009, at 8:25 AM, Cindy Lu wrote: Thanks all for the reply to my question about site map. From the messages and articles I have read so far, the site map can be used in the following ways: 1. Some people are used to using a site map to find things Actually, no. A better way to state this is they are used to using a site map on sites that traditionally have poorly designed navigation systems. 2. Some people may use the site map to find things if anything else is failed Actually, this would me more accurate if you said "ALL site map users use it to find things if the site's navigation has otherwise failed." 3. The analytics of site map usage can help designers improve the Home page or navigation design, i.e. adding frequently used links to the home page Not really. It only tells you what links on the site map are better designed than the links on the site map page. Poorly designed links on a site map will obscure great content just like poorly designed links anywhere else. By the way, you seem to be implying that most use of the site map is from the home page. I'm going to bet that, for many sites, this is not the case. On those sites, the visitor will choose the site map when they've hit a dead end in trying to follow the scent to their content. (The same is true for Search, where we've found on most sites we've studied, it's used from the home page only about 8% of the time.) Looking at the analytics is interesting, but I'm not sure I'd make important decisions from that datapoint alone. It t is a poor man's research tool. Better off looking for other ways to tell what is designed well and what is designed poorly. 4. Site map is useful for people who use a screen reader Again, this is a behavior employed by screen reader users because the first pages they encounter are *so* poorly designed. Design better screen-reader navigation from those pages, and the site map becomes an irrelevant tool. 5. Site map is needed for SEO Blatantly false. Good links are needed for SEO. A well designed site can have great SEO results without resorting to a site map. (Don't confuse the site maps we create for our users with the Google SiteMap tool: http://is.gd/gta5. It's a completely different beast.) In summary, site map is needed for a public web site. I disagree. I'd say it's needed for a poorly designed public web site. Well designed web sites can do quite well without one. My next question: What are the best practices in designing a site map? Focus on creating great information scent across the entire site and then you won't have to worry about the site map. That's my opinion. Worth what you paid for it. Jared Jared M. Spool User Interface Engineering 510 Turnpike St., Suite 102, North Andover, MA 01845 e: jsp...@uie.com p: +1 978 327 5561 http://uie.com Blog: http://uie.com/brainsparks Twitter: jmspool UIE Web App Summit, 4/19-4/22: http://webappsummit.com Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Site Map Design - Best Practices
Thanks all for the reply to my question about site map. From the messages and articles I have read so far, the site map can be used in the following ways: 1. Some people are used to using a site map to find things 2. Some people may use the site map to find things if anything else is failed 3. The analytics of site map usage can help designers improve the Home page or navigation design, i.e. adding frequently used links to the home page 3. Site map is useful for people who use a screen reader 4. Site map is needed for SEO In summary, site map is needed for a public web site. My next question: What are the best practices in designing a site map? Thanks! - Cindy Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Site Map Design - Best Practices
You may already be aware, but just in case you don't, I would just say keep the markup semantic and standard. No guarantees that JAWS (or any screen reader) is going to convey the same meaning to a vision-impaired user, that plain visual IE7 will carry to your 20/20 user. For example, IE7 may italicize your italicized text, making it apparent to your visual users that this text deserves emphasis, but your vision-impaired users may not hear the emphasis. There is more widespread support, however, for phasized text, which tells the screen reader to adjust the sound of the voice to reflect your meaning. Also try to keep the markup to a bare minimum and again, validating to standards. Another point you might already be aware of is that screen readers are designed to work well with expected patterns. They are especially annoying when those patterns aren't found. Examples of commonly-mis-marked chunks are tables and form fieldsets. Check the W3C spec on those to avoid frustrating your hearing-impaired users. For a sitemap, the first thing that comes to mind is lists. Some type of a list might be the most elegant. I'll see if I can find some examples. Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Site Map Design - Best Practices
When reviewing site analytics I see that site map pages get used, but I don't know *why* people are using the page in most cases. I do know (from direct questioning) that in some instances certain users report going to the site map page because they're unable to find what they're looking for by other means. A few people seem to prefer starting at the site map (they just like seeing the list), but it appears that in most cases people arrive at the site map as a last resort, when aspects of the site design don't support finding what they need. The latter is essentially the premise of the UIE article: "The Site Map: An Information Architecture Cop-Out". It makes many good points. See: http://www.uie.com/articles/email.php?article=Sitemap On a related note, SEO companies I've dealt with always want a site map and advocate for listing every single thing you can possibly reference on the site, and then some. Most of the suggestions I've seen from this camp are less than usable--designed for bot consumption more than for consumption by humans. Would be interested in knowing what others have seen in this area, and if there are successful examples that are both SEO- and people-friendly. Maria Cordell On Sun, Jan 18, 2009 at 5:42 PM, Cindy Lu wrote: > Hi! > > Based on your experience, research or any usability study, do visitors of a > public web site use the site map? If they do, what are the typical tasks? > > What are the best practices in designing a site map? > > Thanks in advance! > > - Cindy > > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org > Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe > List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines > List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Site Map Design - Best Practices
All, c.f some interesting discussion about Sitemaps as/in footers in this discussion [1] from October 2008. J. [1] http://www.ixda.org/discuss.php?post=33722&search=footer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=37339 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Site Map Design - Best Practices
Hi Michael, we are working much with windows screenreaders ( just because you always have to know possibilities and limits of the technologies given to you by default) and Jaws, which is a powerful tool that gives blind users the possibility to explore web pages in multiple ways... Didn't ask about markup, but thanks for the hint, that will be my next question. However, what I found is a common mentality to adaptation rather than designing or giving hints for design. At least this is the Italian situation. I find this attitude in different disability categories, so that at the question "have you any suggestion to improve this/that feature of the site?" the reply would be "I have no idea what you can do, so just do it the way you think and I'll let you know", also in people concerned with development and design. The best way for me to get good info from them is to ask them for good examples. But hey, what about YOUR good examples?? ;-) Cheers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=37339 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Site Map Design - Best Practices
I'm very interested in learning more about this user's experience. Which screen reader/s are they using? What markup structure is used for the sitemap they enjoy? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=37339 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Site Map Design - Best Practices
Hello there, talking with a blind user about the development of a site with multiple layer, I discovered site maps are their best way to jump from one thing to another without having to listen to the whole page before getting what they need, expecially after being confident with it. This was so simple for him, but so important for me as a designer. However, I have no "good examples" to give, but I'd ask Michael to give some if you can!! ;-) Thanks, cheers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=37339 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Site Map Design - Best Practices
Hi, >From a user perspective, I often use a site map when I am after a specific piece of information and I don't trust that the navigation bar will direct me to exactly where I want to go quickly. For instance, if I need to know opening hours...Is that under 'About Us' or 'Contact Us'?. The process can be compared to going to a supermarket you don't know and needing to find a specific item. The site map is an opportunity to provide the detail not possible in a graphic navigation bar. cheers -Original Message- From: discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com [mailto:discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com] On Behalf Of Cindy Lu Sent: Monday, 19 January 2009 9:42 AM To: disc...@ixda.org Subject: [IxDA Discuss] Site Map Design - Best Practices Hi! Based on your experience, research or any usability study, do visitors of a public web site use the site map? If they do, what are the typical tasks? What are the best practices in designing a site map? Thanks in advance! - Cindy Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help This communication contains information which is confidential and the copyright of the Australian Centre for the Moving Image. If you are not the intended recipient of this e-mail please notify the sender immediately and delete it from your system. Any views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender and may not be the views of the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, unless specifically stated. This footnote also confirms that this email message has been swept by MIMEsweeper for the presence of computer viruses. Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Site Map Design - Best Practices
P.S. I've been seeing more site map as primary nav lately. Lots of creative ways to make it available too... beyond multi-level flyouts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=37339 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Site Map Design - Best Practices
Some people use site maps the same way some people use site footer links: They just go there for anything they need, because they feel this is the only place that is an honest representation of their options on the site. I was surprised to learn this a few years ago, but yes, these people exist. Also, some site maps are for Google and friends. But I tend to use a sitemap specifically for that purpose, in addition to the traditional sitemap. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=37339 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
[IxDA Discuss] Site Map Design - Best Practices
Hi! Based on your experience, research or any usability study, do visitors of a public web site use the site map? If they do, what are the typical tasks? What are the best practices in designing a site map? Thanks in advance! - Cindy Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
