| Introduction
Comparing pages &
screens
Recognizing elements
of effective screen design
Writing prose to suit
the Web
Organizing multiple
pages
Writing faster
Additional Resources |
To organize a set of Web pages
effectively, think about the pattern you want to use, and make your pages
look like a set.
Think about Organizational
Patterns
The use of links in Web pages
makes organization a trickier effort than it was when writing for print.
The traditional outline no longer applies. Rather, multiple patterns
are sometimes possible.
Lynch & Horton (1997)
identify four types of organizational patterns:
Sequences are linear patterns in which
readers proceed from one page to the next without much choice for variation.
Hierarchies look something like organizational
charts, allowing readers to choose a sub-topic and then move along a path
of pages devoted to that topic. If a reader wanted to move to a new sub-topic,
she would have to return to the homepage.
Grids look similar to hierarchies,
but with grids readers can easily move between sub-topics at any level.
With Webs, a reader can proceed to
any page from any other page.
What pattern you use depends on your audience
and purpose. For more on the four types of patterns and when they're
appropriate, see Lynch & Horton's (1997) page on site
structure.
Make Your Pages Look Like
a Set
Remember that readers cannot easily
comprehend a "set" of Web pages. Whereas a stapled collection of
printed pages has a clear beginning and end, such boundaries are not so
clear in a Web site. Use a uniform set of format options (text, space,
graphics) to reinforce the fact that readers are reading a set of pages.
Next page -> |