Define goals: get people to agree on what they are if it’s for a client.

Analyse other sites:

• What do you like?
• What do you hate?
• What would you like to emulate?
• What are your "competitors" doing?
• Chart their approach with an analysis similar to what we’ve been doing in class:
• Content
• Graphic Design
• Technology
• Usabilty

Write Scenarios:

• What is the experience that people are going to have when they come to your site?
• What will they be looking for?
• How will they find it?
• From your viewer’s point of view, imagine that they have a specific goal – think about how they meet this goal? For example, I want to buy a copy of the Hitchikers Guide the Universe on Amazon. What is my experience going to be like?

Flowcharts:

• Screenwriters use index cards when writing a screen play – each scene gets a card. Try a similar approach.
• Play with the order of the cards.

This is the start of figuring out your Information Architecture (Navigation)

Go back to the Comms Plan, get it okay’d if you’ve got a client.

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Some facts about Navigation:

• Viewers look at content first
• Viewers tend to ignore nav bars and other design features
• Viewers either don’t understand, or don’t care about the underlying structure
• Viewers are goal driven.
• (idea of surfing vs. seeking)
• Viewers will revert to a search function (or start there) if it’s not easy
• Viewers are ruthless – if it’s not relevant or interesting, they’ll be gone
• Does this mean navigation is unimportant? – on the contrary, it’s vital.

A few tips:

• Generic links: don’t link everything to every page. A few links a page is better, so that it is easier for the audience to find what it’s looking for.
• Structural links: don’t cross link too much. Use:
• Nav bar
• Drop downs
• A consistent text only link to second level pages

• Don’t make your site different from everything else
• Make it easy – no "mystery meat" navigation

Next steps (preview):

>>Content Map: what content goes on what page
>>Site Map: what each page is called

Storyboards: what the pages are going to look like – sample flow