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This section describes designing information architecture using presentation templates, site navigators, direct and embedded links, menus, and searches.
Introduction
A critical component of information architecture is its design, which addresses content access through the site interface. Page layout, links, menus, navigators, taxonomy, site breadcrumbs, search, identity standards and graphics are all components of web information design. Users have different preferred means for accessing information so an effective information design provides users with multiple ways of accessing information.
The most common means of accessing information are:
- Site navigators
- Direct feature links
- Embedded hyperlinks
- Site menus
- Search
All are valid and we recommend that you leverage all the site components from IBM Web Content Manager (WCM) when designing and building a site to enhance user experience. To provide a relevant context for these components and to illustrate specific examples, we use the River Bend sample site referred to throughout this wiki.. We use these throughout this book, because we believe that they represent good information architecture and good site design.
Using presentation templates
One of the features of IBM Web Content Manager is the separation of content and its creation from the presentation of content using
presentation templates. With presentation templates, the content creator is not responsible for the page design that will ultimately display their content document.
The presentation template is determined by a loosely coupled relationship between a page design and a content authoring template. It is recommended that you avoid a large number of slightly different presentation templates and instead, use one that covers all authoring template features.
It is possible to pair different page designs (presentation templates) with one authoring template in different site areas. This means one piece of content can be displayed in multiple ways depending on the site area currently displayed -- called
multipublishing. Different uses of multipublishing can be helpful. You should create one content that includes a full set of information, for example, product information. This content can contain confidential material that is published in an intranet or extranet. If the same content is taken and published in the Internet, different presentation templates allow you not only to have a different design but also to share a subset of the original content securely. You can create content with the same type of authoring template but publish it with different presentation templates, depending on the department, brand, location, or language.
To increase the reuse and decrease the maintenance effort, components are used. Presentation templates can contain different kinds of components that are used depending on the site area where content is published. Thus, when news is separated into categories, depending on the site area, a different title logo (component) is chosen instead of creating a presentation template for every news category.
Using site navigators
Navigators a key part of user's web experience. Some users prefer to drill down through navigation levels with the site structure being as big a part of the user experience as the content itself. When it becomes necessary to include a high number of navigation levels, it is crucial to choose an information design that stays straightforward and intuitive. A very powerful feature is highlighting the selected navigation path. Users can easily get confused when the navigation does not follow a logical structure or changes its design.
Related to the usability considerations, you should also consider the performance of navigation. To save space or because it might seem more high tech, navigators are used that encompass all available navigation levels by clicking or mouse over. This kind of navigation often requires complex handling and cannot be easily overlooked when web accessibility is a big issue. Consideration should be given to the accessibility of websites for all users, particularly public sites.
Because IBM Web Content Manager is used to manage dynamic sites over many years, navigation should allow the site to expand dynamically.
Note: Navigators are not menus. Menus are a list of hyperlinks that take you to specific pages, but navigators are organized differently. Navigators present the logical arrangement of a web site, while menus are a list of related web pages that might appear anywhere in your site and use search criteria to present the links.
Using menus
A menu is ultimately a search mechanism that groups together lists and related documents based on specific criteria, such as categories, site areas, or keywords for display and access to users. The image below displays links as images, icons with text, links with a summary, or many other combinations. These menus combine elements based on content from more than one site area, not possible with navigators. To users, menus and navigators provide the same functionality allowing a user to navigate around the site or to locate particular content.
Using direct feature links
Of all the methods to access content, direct feature links is the most direct way of accessing content items. This method enables one-click access from a top-level site location, which is almost always the home page, to any content that may be embedded a few layers down in the site structure. These types of links are reserved for the most timely and relevant news or information. However, they can also be used to provide additional information that is related to the current content.
Through the use of menus, and leveraging categories, parameters can be set to bring the timeliest content to the home page. In addition, individual pieces of content can be categorized, or a category can be associated with a specific content template so that all content created with that template has the specified category. Content can have one or more categories. These categories then can be presented dynamically by direct feature links such as News, Products, Events, or Promotions.
These direct feature links are embedded as rich text components and are central managed enabling any site developer to re-use the same links wherever they are applicable.
We recommend that every site include the "Search", "Contact", and "About us" direct feature links to provide the user with a good web experience.
Using embedded hyperlinks
Embedded text hyperlinks provide users with one-click access to content that is related to the article that they are reading but may be in a different area of the web site. The only way for users to return from embedded hyperlinks is to use the browser Back button. Navigators and breadcrumbs do not work here. When pages include links to pages outside of the web site, the current web site will often be replaced when clicking the new link
Alternatively the new site may open in a separate window. Often, embedded hyperlinks are used to define a word or phrase that is mentioned (much like a cross reference in a book).
The figure below shows the embedded hyperlinks marked by red square boxes.
Another usage of embedded hyperlinks is in WebSphere Portal where they can be used to reference corresponding content or applications, depending or related information. This WebSphere Portal feature is called Click-to-action. The click-to-action capability lets you send information from one portlet to another automatically. This capability leverages the way that web content and web applications interact and leads to more powerful dynamic workplaces. For example, if a user clicks on a specific topic in a Topic List portlet, click-to-action allows an adjacent portlet to limit the postings shown to just those in the specified topic, based on the criteria selected in the Topics portlet.
Using search
Searching a website is one of the most used features and is particularly useful to users who do not have time to learn the site structure. Visitors expect the search to return exactly what they are looking for, particularly when they know that the information is there. Because of this high expectation, search results need to be high quality. To return effective search results it is critical that content categories and keywords are defined and applied to each page prior to publication. See for information related to the search setup and configuration. So, how should a search work from an information design perspective? There are two options possible.
First, the search function should be ntuitive to use. The user can enter words in an input field, and the results deliver all content that include the searched parameters, sorted by relevance. Relevance normally means it starts with the content that includes all words searched for and continues with single words found.
The second option is advanced search. Advanced search options may included Boolean combinations using AND, OR and NOT as well searching by Date, Author, Keywords or other metadata.
Search results can also have a different approach. Search results will usually offer a URL to the web page that includes the cited content. Search results may also include a short abstract of the content as part of the result. This abstract offers a specified number of words from the content or additional metadata fields. Details of the results can be saved for download or can be printed.
For a multilingual site, consideration should be given to the default language of the search as well as parameters controlling which language content is to be returned.