USER ORIENTED WEBSITE INTERFACE Organizing Content YOU ARE HERE!

WEBSITE IA & USABILITY: ORGANIZING CONTENT

ORGANIZING CONTENT AT THE WEBSITE LEVEL

The objectives of content assessment and organization are to gather a list of the necessary content and to organize that content relative to your audience's needs. The process of defining the purpose and goals of your website, as well as your target audience and their goals, should preceded the process of organizing a content of the web site.

The ultimate goal of information architecture design is to structure website content in an efficient and intuitive manner, so that it meets user's needs - to be understandable and easy to find and use.

• establish an inventory of the content - existing / planned / combined;
• build an organization scheme - establish logical content groups - categories, and label them meaningfully to target audience;
  
• build an information structure - based on logical content groups, and their relationship;
• generate a navigation system - primary links display the information structure, while secondary links lead to pages on the same level.

ORGANIZATION SCHEME

Organization schemes are utilized for categorization of the items in your content inventory according to both user needs and the purpose of your site.

Content categories could comply to various organization schemes, such as alphabetical, chronological, geographical, topical, task related, audience specific, etc. Their combination is also often used on the Web.

Organization schemes must be user-centered to work well. If your target audience doesn't understand a scheme, it won't work, regardless how easy it is to navigate your website. The best way to create a user-centered organization scheme is through usability testing.

INFORMATION STRUCTURE

There are three basic website structures: linear, matrix and hierarchical. Linear structures are seldom utilized, except for very small websites, as navigation is restricted to backward-forward, while matrix structure usually utilizes a database.

The most often used information structure is a hierarchy, especially for complex information. A hierarchical website organization includes different levels for different pages. Higher level pages are usually for navigation, while lower level pages usually provide the content that visitors looked for. When designing a hierarchical structure, offering many choices to users on the same page is better than making them click through several levels, so breadth is more favorable than depth. Horizontal complexity should be minimum.

ORGANIZING CONTENT AT THE WEBPAGE LEVEL

"Consistency and predictability are essential attributes of any well-designed information system" (Web Style Guide, 2nd edition).

"Newspaper design takes a uniform approach to layout because newspapers have found that there are only a few ways to lay out content for maximum readability. The layout is almost identical. The difference is in the content." (Gerry McGovern)

Web layout should be simple, conventional & consistent.
Similar to newspaper 'universal' layout and specific content, using website design conventions and information architecture that corresponds to the mental models of your users, improves website usability significantly. Conventional and predictable design helps users to implement their learning experience and find the information easily and quickly, resulting in additional satisfaction. Website Layout & Mental Maps >>

MAXIMIZE THE VALUE OF THE SCREEN

The first and the most important screen of a webpage is often called "above the fold". The term is actually borrowed from a newspaper terminology, where it's used for the beginning of the page, and reserved for headline stories.

The first screen of a webpage indicates the page content to a user, therefore the webpage elements most important to identifying content need to be placed "above the fold". That way users could determine whether the topic of a page interests them without scrolling.

All images and text elements on a webpage should be organized in a consistent visual hierarchy, to show their importance, relationships, and support scanning and comprehensibility.

Besides placing the more important elements nearer the top of the page, their importance could also be emphasized by making them bigger, bolder, surrounded with the white space, etc. Likewise, similar items could be grouped together, be presented with the same color, size, font style, etc.

Every page should be designed to accommodate fast scanning, as 79% of Web users scan pages (Sun Microsystems). To achieve optimal results you should emphasize the contrast between various page elements.

Enable different ways to find information, including navigation (primary, local, breadcrumb), search, site map, etc. But not too many at the same time, as it may be confusing.

PAGE LENGTH / WIDTH / DOWNLOAD SPEED

Avoid the need for horizontal scroll. Statistics show that horizontal scrolling often annoyed the users. Keep your content within the "image-safe" area - 780 pixels wide, according to the IBM website guidelines. Investigate your target audience to determine their screen resolution settings and the size of their monitors to get more specific data.

Ten years ago users were also reluctant to scroll vertically, but more recent studies show this have changed. Users are willing to scroll vertically, if the content is relevant and serves their needs well, and the page is well-structured.

Research shows that users leave if your page takes too long to load. The optimal page length for each web page also depends on download speeds of your targeted audience. The average user is still utilizing a 56 KB modem, so generally your web page should take less than 10 seconds to load. Additionally, people interpret fast loading pages as high quality, reliable pages. Don't reduce your valuable content - optimize your graphics and HTML instead!

User Oriented Design & Ethical Website Marketing Strategies by Distinctia, 2006