We’re all familiar with the layout of a traditional website. When we ask someone to design a site for us we have expectations based upon the layout we’ve seen thousands of times.
So, there is a Home page with a brilliant graphic on it, perhaps a few extra pages on various themes depending on the purpose of the site, perhaps in a drop-down menu and then there will be an About page, a Contact page and possibly a few other odds and ends.
Not all sites share this structure. There two reasons why we think most websites follow this layout.
- We don’t see the entire layout of a site. If we enter the site through its Home page, we assume everyone enters the site in the same way. We see the pages in the main navigation and assume they make up the entire site. It’s similar to the reason people tend to overestimate the amount of built up areas in Britain. People estimate way over 8 or 9% because we usually don’t experience the deep rural areas. Roads and railways connect settlements and so we mostly see the built up places they connect.
- The other reason we don’t see websites in their entirety is because we don’t expect them to be functional. We expect pages to be static, simply displaying information. We don’t expect websites to drive businesses although that is what many websites do.
In this Structure category, I shall explore what makes a good website, the pages it needs and good practice for page layout. These first few posts are an overview of some basic site structures. Later on I shall look at various aspects in more depth. Next Tuesday, the hidden life of websites!
Do you have a favourite site structure? Why do you use it? What are its advantages and disadvantages? Share your experiences in a comment.
