Site inventory and analysis

Creating an accurate site inventory is perhaps the most important thing when designing and re-designing Web sites. The inventory helps us determine:

  • how the site is structured
  • what files are inside which folders
  • what material is on the page
  • how the material is organized
  • who is the intended audience
  • the problems with the structure

This section of the project corresponds to Chapters 3 and 4 of Web Re-Design. Our assignment will incorporate many of the tools Goto and Colter advocate, and I encourage you to refer to the text often when considering what you should be doing at this stage. Many of the resources described in the book are available on the book's web site, so please use them.

Four of the organizational tools the book advocates that we will be completing are: 1) a Communication Brief; 2) an Audit Methodology; 3) a Content Delivery Plan; and 4) a Site Map. It is important to remember that we cannot keep inventories in our head. Using the above tools (and others described in the book) will help you keep information organized. We have an excellent program in the lab called Vue, which can be used for making site maps. It's easy to learn, and I recommend you use it when creating your maps.

It will also be important for you to create a file structure that represents the structure of the web site. For example, if you have 5 main sections off the home page (index.html), you should have 5 folders with names that correspond to the 5 sections. All files in a particular section will then go into its related folder. Having an organized file structure allows designers and users to easily find the files in the future. Please also have a separate folder for images.

You'll need to meet outside of class. Parlin 102 is open to you, and you'll have access to the teacher folder and all the applications we have on the classroom computers. I also suggest communicating over email will all group members. It is very important that each group member understands and follows through with their role within the group. Please establish clear roles and tasks to ensure that everyone has a voice and that everyone's voice is heard and valued.

Requirements

  • A Communication Brief with all sections described on pages 62-64 in Goto except "Competitive Positioning." This will help outline your group's individual goals for the project.
  • A content inventory that outlines the current content and its structure. This process will help show you the organization (or lack thereof) of the current site.
  • An Audit Methodology for the main navigation links (see Goto, p. 93). I suggest you use Excel. This is excellent for identifying and filtering out irrelevant and redundant content.
  • A site map that shows the new, proposed structure, including additional content. Here is where you are going to be designing the new site. Take a look at what Goto writes about the benefits of "chunking."
  • A Content Delivery Plan for the proposed new site. This will help you determine the most relevant text for each page, the names for your files, and the relationship of the content between files in the same section. It will also allow you to share the content delivery responsibilities within the group. Internal deadlines will be very useful to assign.

Each of the above should be published online to your group project page in .html, Microsoft Word (.rtf) formats, or other relevant format.

Additional resources

from Alertbox

from Usability Testing and Research by Carol M. Barnum