tapacity

Navigation is about mapping your site. Creating pathways to information and experiences.

Typically a web site has what is called “Top Level Navigation”. All other links to pages get placed underneath one of the top level links. (Click here and then place your cursor over the top level links of the United Way site.).

Basically Top Level links are the major themes of your web site. Each link beneath is a sub-theme or associated theme. So, you want congruency of theme for each of your Top Level Navigation links. Simple, right?

Diagram or outline the navigational plan for your Web site.  Figure out first the major themes of the Web site and then what pages you want beneath each theme. Each of those pages becomes a sub-link of the Top Level Navigation Link.  Once you are done doing this you have, in effect, a content plan for your Web site.

Likely if you talk to your colleagues about what they want on the Web site, you will hear things like: 

1. We need people to know about our services.
2. We should include our mission and vision
3. We should motivate people to volunteer and donate to us
4. Let’s make sure they know where we are located and how to contact us.
5. We should share the results we deliver to our clients
6. How about success stories?
7. Can we have a place on the Web site to recognize volunteers and donors?
8. I would like to promote our fundraising events on the site.

Those are just a few example. The challenge is to then review the list of needs or wants and sort them into themes. For example, items 2 and 4 might fall under a top level theme called ABOUT US. How would you finish off the list I started and then how would you group your list into top level themes?

It’s not that hard to figure that out.