[WEB4LIB] What's good design? :-)

[Suzanne Reymer]

I think the key here is the information architecture.  When we started out on the path to redesign the 
Montana State Library web page, we immediately got caught up in what I considered to be superficial 
issues of javascript vs. non-javascript and web templates while the underlying structure was a mess 
and wasn't being dealt with at all.

I ran across a very useful book: Information architecture for the World Wide Web / Louis Rosenfeld 
and Peter Morville published by O'Reilly in 1998

They take you back to the drawing board to consider the mission of the web site, what types of 
content should and should not be included and how to organize it all with the user in mind.  I highly 
recommend it for anyone planning to organize or reorganize a large site.

Suzanne

3/14/01 9:18:51 AM, "Jennifer Geard" <JLG at ltsa.govt.nz> wrote:

<snip>
>However we're currently costing design changes to remove frames,
>lighten the graphics load and restructure its information architecture.
>
>Which leads to a question: what are good ways of organising big websites?
>Feel free to address issues of depth (my ideal is one click from the
>homepage to the most topical or heavily-used content, two clicks to most
>content and a maximum of three clicks to any point in the site), breadth
>(how many links can you put on a page before you're just befuddling your
>users) and ways of gathering topics to provide clear access. (Bonus marks
>may be awarded for discussion of selection criteria for terms used in
>headings. ;-)
>
>Cheers,
>  Jennifer
>
>

**************************************
Suzanne Reymer
Statewide Technology Librarian
Montana State Library
c/o Parmly Billings Library
510 N. Broadway
Billings, MT   59101
MT Toll free: (888) 826-0837
Phone: (406) 255-0729
Fax: (406) 255-0732
Email: sreymer at uswest.net
***************************************