How to Plan Your Website Structure
http://www.seo-marketing-articles.com/articles/5395/1/How-to-Plan-Your-Website-Structure/Page1.html
Derek Rogers
Derek Rogers is a freelance writer who writes for a number of UK businesses. For information on ADSL support, he recommends Iconnyx, a leading provider of internet support services. By Derek Rogers
Published on 02/2/2010
Many of the websites hosted around the web look very polished and professionally designed in an effort to attract a deluge of daily traffic While there are lots of software packages that make website creation easy, the most professional sites are done by designers and teams that go through all sorts of planning from the structure to the graphics itself
Many of the websites hosted around the web look very polished and professionally designed in an effort to attract a deluge of daily traffic. While there are lots of software packages that make website creation easy, the most professional sites are done by designers and teams that go through all sorts of planning from the structure to the graphics itself. Covered here are the steps in planning the website structure so that it will be easier to code.
Plan your Navigation Bar
Just about all home pages have a set of links that take users to all of the other parts of a website. All that is needed in this step is to simply identify them by listing them down. You can list these down on a piece of paper and you do not have to draw any fancy diagrams just yet since that is reserved for the next step. The goal for this is to get the general scope of your structure in preparation for making a more detailed sitemap.
Illustrate a Sitemap
A sitemap is a diagram showing all of the pages that are included in the website. It also shows how each page is linked to other pages. This is necessary not only to know how many pages your website will be, but also help determine what your folder structure will be when you try to link the pages together through coding. There are no real rules in making a sitemap, but one general way to do it is by simply drawing a tree diagram representing each page as a box.
The first box will represent the homepage and the tree begins by branching out to the main pages listed in the navigational bar. Then those pages will branch out further if there are any subpages. This can be done using pen and paper or any graphics design software. There are some applications like Microsoft Visio and SmartDraw that make sitemaps easy to design. Double-check the sitemap to see if it flows and connects properly.
Make a few Mock-ups of the Home Page and Other Templates
Now with a good sitemap at hand, it should be much easier to make a general layout of the homepage with all the links and navigation buttons. Mock-ups of the home page are highly recommended to make the coding faster. If you do not have an idea on what colour scheme or graphics to use, start with basic boxes and lines just to create a skeletal structure for everything to fit into.
The objective here is to know, for instance, how many columns your layout will have or an estimate on how big the banner will be. If you have a better idea on what your site is going to look like, you can use a graphics application like Photoshop to create a more detailed site mock-up. Do the same with other templates as well.
The mock-up and sitemap diagram will serve as two key resources for the actual coding of the templates and layouts of the web pages. Following these steps properly should make it easier for coders to forge a good design without many revisions.
Plan your Navigation Bar
Just about all home pages have a set of links that take users to all of the other parts of a website. All that is needed in this step is to simply identify them by listing them down. You can list these down on a piece of paper and you do not have to draw any fancy diagrams just yet since that is reserved for the next step. The goal for this is to get the general scope of your structure in preparation for making a more detailed sitemap.
Illustrate a Sitemap
A sitemap is a diagram showing all of the pages that are included in the website. It also shows how each page is linked to other pages. This is necessary not only to know how many pages your website will be, but also help determine what your folder structure will be when you try to link the pages together through coding. There are no real rules in making a sitemap, but one general way to do it is by simply drawing a tree diagram representing each page as a box.
The first box will represent the homepage and the tree begins by branching out to the main pages listed in the navigational bar. Then those pages will branch out further if there are any subpages. This can be done using pen and paper or any graphics design software. There are some applications like Microsoft Visio and SmartDraw that make sitemaps easy to design. Double-check the sitemap to see if it flows and connects properly.
Make a few Mock-ups of the Home Page and Other Templates
Now with a good sitemap at hand, it should be much easier to make a general layout of the homepage with all the links and navigation buttons. Mock-ups of the home page are highly recommended to make the coding faster. If you do not have an idea on what colour scheme or graphics to use, start with basic boxes and lines just to create a skeletal structure for everything to fit into.
The objective here is to know, for instance, how many columns your layout will have or an estimate on how big the banner will be. If you have a better idea on what your site is going to look like, you can use a graphics application like Photoshop to create a more detailed site mock-up. Do the same with other templates as well.
The mock-up and sitemap diagram will serve as two key resources for the actual coding of the templates and layouts of the web pages. Following these steps properly should make it easier for coders to forge a good design without many revisions.