Or “I can’t find my way home”

The common failing and hence distrust of the site map is due to general poor execution. To be effective, the site map should be a clear visualization of the site structure. The site map page must be easy to scan; within it, categories must be easy to recognize; the labels must be intuitive in language and structure; and, the page itself, must be easy to find.

Why agonize trying to developing an all-encompassing menu-based navigation system when you can provide the usability of a sitemap. Although not always the solution, the following sites employ a method of displaying a site map or site index that is easily accessible in the bottom portion of the home page. Unobtrusive to the main message of the site yet still a handy navigation tool.

NetSquared – A new found personal favourite. Usability will bring back the popularity of the sitemap. This navigation tool describes the breadth of the content very quickly and is easily scanned.

digg maintains the primary focus of the site by keeping the housekeeping off the main thoroughfare. When the site is providing a service, supporting content will become an obstacle.

CBC is a great example of a site index that caters to the variety of context in which a user might be browsing. Categorization by subject matter, by audience, by purpose: provides redundant but intuitive listing of links to the desired content.

Further reading

Site Map Usability

Sitemaps and Site Indexes: What They Are and Why You Should Have Them

Peter Morville gives some good insight in the field of information architecture and findability. Morville wrote Ambient Findability and co-wrote Information Architecture – both great books. Morville spoke on two panels at SXSWi this year: the first, Searching and SEO; and second, Ambient Findability.

A portion that really struck me as valuable was his characteristics of usability – a word that has become synonymous with general quality of a website: Useful, Useable, Desirable, Accessible, Credible, Findable, and Valuable. Each characteristic contributes to the appearant value of website design.

Another topic that came up dealt with the conversation of taxonomy vs folksonomy. While quite popular now, folksonomy may become essentially unuseable due to the impending growth in content under single tags. Tendency back towards taxonomy will keep the content findable and ultimately useable. For example, clustering tags into logical groups is a step towards traditional taxonomy.

While taxonomy and folksonomy help us in finding the content we are looking for, the social aspect of describing the aboutness of content is increasing as a qualificaiton of the content. “What others are doing” with this content ultimately gives further context and credibility.

The intuitiveness of the path to the content we look for is the essence of ambient findability. When designing a website we have to realize there are a variety of methods of navigation that may be equally intuitive. Searching, for example, is more than likely going to be the first step in navigation. User-centric and self-identification based navigation is another method. A subject based hierarchy is yet another. The following steps should provide an effective way to drill down into the content the user is looking for.

Further exploration, reading resources for information architecture

1. Boxes and Arrows
2. Don’t make me think by Steve Krug
3. Information Architecture Summit