Extension Web Publishing 3 Lecture # 1. Chapter 6 Site Types and Architectures

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Abner Morton
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1 Chapter 6 Site Types and Architectures

2 Site Types Definition: A public Web site, an Internet Web site, an external Web site or simply a Web site is one that is not explicitly restricted to a particular class of users. This is often due to be on the Internet in an unrestricted fashion, not necessarily always by intent Definition: An intranet site is a site private to a particular organization, generally run within a private network rather than on the Internet at large. Definition: An extranet site is a Web site that is available to a a limited class of users, but is available generally via the public Internet

3 Web Site Types Intranets Extranets Public Info about Users High Medium Low Capacity Planning Possible Usually possible Difficult to impossible Bandwidth High Varies Varies greatly Ability to set technology Yes Sometimes Rarely

4 Site Types by Interactivity and Change Static Sites Most common Pages don t change per visitor and are built to fit users generically Dynamic Sites Built on the fly for users Personalized sites fall into this category (myyahoo) Usually stored in a database Note the issue of building at page view time or not Interactive sites Those that allow the user to interact with content or site features in a significant fashion beyond simple selection

5 Dynamic Site Overview

6 Grouping by Size Not the best approach because with technology making pages quickly (usually via a CMS) size may not be an indicator of complexity My breakdown <= 10 pages - very small small mid-size ,000 large > 10,000 very large

7 Grouping by Technology (Document vs. Software)

8 Grouping by Look Text-focused GUI Style Metaphorical Experimental

9 Grouping by Purpose Commercial Basic information distribution Support Investor Relations Public Relations Employee recruiting E-commerce Premise: The overriding purpose of any commercial site is to serve the user in a way that will benefit the company either directly or indirectly.

10 Grouping by Purpose Informational Take away the commercial aspect? Entertainment Idea: Entertainment sites may find novelty or surprise in design and navigation more useful than structure or consistency as compared to other sites. Navigational and Aggregation Sites like portals which are mainly used as starting point for going elsewhere. While these may be main destinations little activity may take place on these sites themselves.

11 Grouping by Purpose Community Allows easy interaction between site visitors Meeting area, message board, etc. Artistic May purposefully try to defy common Web conventions Personal Blogs

12 Site Structure Logical structure How the viewer sees things Previous Step Physical Structure URL, File path Premise: Logical is more important than physical. Because physical changes try not to expose it. Users will want to know how to hit the press releases area in general not where it lives Choose a site form that leverages the logical structure of content

13 Info Organization Pure Linear Always going to be bi-directional due to the back button Slide shows, tours, presentations, etc.

14 Info Organization Linear with Alternatives Answer yes/no questions but same eventual next question False interactivity Note wrong image label here

15 Info Organization Contd. Linear with Options Good for surveys with skip question sections General path is preserved Note: wrong image label below

16 Info Organization Contd. Linear with Side Trips Diversions possible Path is preserved

17 Info Organization Contd. Grid Uncommon Has spatial orientation Good for related items and organization (e.g. catalog)

18 Info Organization Contd. Narrow Hierarchy A few choices Many clicks to get to destination Some spatial orientation

19 Info Organization Contd. Wide Hierarchy Too many choices Click few times to reach content Spatial but less so Breadth vs. Depth Question is now obvious

20 Trees The most common structure but not always the best. Back track is common in trees

21 Trees in Use Normally you try to account for backtrack using navigation bars to make the main sub-trees easily accessible.

22 Trees in Use Contd. The reality is that often trees are simple in the data structure sense particularly if you consider the back links.

23 Full Mesh If you go to far and try to make every page reachable via 1-click you end up with the fullmesh 10 pages = 90 links 1000 page site has nearly 1,000,000 links Pages * (pages 1)

24 Mixed Forms Attempt to find the strengths of each form by section and mix it up.

25 Web Style The reality is most sites don t tend to have a great deal of structure from a link point of view and for users we ll see it doesn t matter really.

26 New Forms? Be careful with thinking there are new forms to be quickly discovered, many are equivalent to base forms.

27 Realistic User View of the Site

28 Well it might be a bit more complicated

29 Goal Driven vs. Structure Driven Web Dev? Focusing on entry and exit and trying to get people to get what they want quickly Amazon knows how many clicks you want to do 1! Consider Amazon s feature other people who bought this book bought these books This approach to navigation is known as information foraging The wild animal and food example is good to keep in mind Back to the story we are just doing the entrance, we don t even have a page yet!

30 Site Navigation vs. Web Navigation Remember that your site may just be one Island Hop on a user s visit to many sites trying to accomplish some overall task.

31 Entry Point Important: Consider This

32 Deep vs. Shallow Sites Suggestion: Aim for click depth of three At least feedback upon three Suggestion: Even for large site structures consider links per page when clustering properly. Suggestion: If something is important have redundant links/paths to it Try to avoid more than 10-20% redundant links to reduce user confusion and feeling of being pushed

33 Picking a Site Structure and Type Premise: Novice users prefer sites with predictable structure and may put up with extra clicks or a lack of control to achieve a comfort level. Premise: Power users or frequent site visitors will want control and will favor a variety of navigation choices in a site.

Site Design. SWE 432, Fall 2017 Design and Implementation of Software for the Web

Site Design. SWE 432, Fall 2017 Design and Implementation of Software for the Web Site Design SWE 432, Fall 2017 Design and Implementation of Software for the Web Today How do you help users understand if it is possible to do what they d like to do? How do you help users find what they