Growing Hypertrees - Page 4

There are many ways to structure a Web site. The one used by EncycloZine I call the hypertree. A hypertree is essentially a hierarchical information structure with ad-hoc cross-links. It merges the benefits of the familiar hierarchical organization with those of the richly-interconnected Web. Hierarchical organization schemes are well-suited to Web sites, since users are familiar with hierarchical structures, and find the metaphor easy to understand as a navigational aid. The hierarchical structure forms the major 'backbone' to guide the user's intuitions about the site, while the cross-links create 'shortcuts'.

EncycloZine's hierarchy gradually evolved. We changed top levels (rarely) or moved subtopics to more logical locations, or moved them higher up or lower down in the hierarchy according to popularity, subject to constraints of reasonable logical inclusion. Or, some topics divided into multiple topics, or were merged.

You might expect that continually re-organising content might lead to problems such as the infamous 404s, but we were careful to update the server redirects.

We now have about a dozen broad topic areas, which have partially been chosen by our users. More precisely, the topic hierarchy is a balance between popularity and conceptual structure. Thus, optical illusions and puzzles have top-level status because they are the most popular pages, and I am motivated to expand them with sub-levels as their content is added to.

But like all rules or guidelines, this one has its limits: Harmonograms, Spirographs, and Lissajous Figures is also quite popular (a little less so), but the page is still several levels deep (Science / Mathematics / Graphs / Encyclo), and will almost certainly stay there. There isn't much more than a page's worth to this topic, and I'm probably not going to develop it much (apart from a few improvements to the Java applet, and possibly adding an SVG version).

Classification and navigation based on an underlying hierarchical filing system is a cheap and effective implementation strategy, but I have a suspicion that there must be something better; certainly database and software supported. It should be very dynamic and flexible, recognizing relationships such as "subtopic of" in the content, and it should then be capable of generating navigation menus, maps and links on the fly, or overnight, so that user traversals of navigation structures can be minimised. This was my problem with Yahoo!-type schemes — too much depth. However, tree structures can be supplemented with appropriate cross-links (a 'hypertree') to related topics, and in the absence of AI software, we just do it manually.

Labelling and Grouping

It might seem pedantic to devote a section to words and their meanings, but I've seen confusions arise quite often because a word or phrase suggested different things to different Web site users. Let's think about the meaning of Life, for example. On EncycloZine this topic refers to the world of nature and biology, but I could imagine that some users would more naturally associate it with things that go on in one's human life, such as careers, love, etc. To some, a "Bulletin Board" is a discussion area, to others it is a place for posting announcements, with no option to respond. In most such cases, the context in which the word or phrase appears may help to determine the intended meaning, but occasionally a few users may remain confused.

While thinking about the structure or 'architecture' of site content, it's important to also decide on meaningful names (labels) for navigation links. Those names need to make sense not only to you and your colleagues, but also to your target audience. Unless you can count on them being very similar to yourself (!), you will need to be conservative rather than adventurous in choosing labels. For example, "Potpourri" as a label for stuff that doesn't fit elsewhere might sound cool, but be aware that less educated or younger viewers, or those whose mother tongue isn't English, might not know the word. "Miscellanous" is better, but perhaps you feel it's a little too dry. How about "Odds'n'Ends"? You might want to have a thesaurus handy.

Try to avoid ambiguous words, i.e. having multiple meanings, unless the context makes the specific meaning very clear. Java on WDVL almost certainly doesn't refer to coffee, but on EncycloZine, perhaps it could. In the latter case, Java appears under Web design and so needs little further qualification (except possibly to distinguish applets from programming, unless it's about both).

Some words have numerous alternate meanings, some of which you might not be aware of or might not think about while you're focused on the specific meaning you have in mind. The word "pitch" has a dozen or so common meanings, and my Webster's lists 53!

Then, there are also variations across branches of major languages, e.g. between British and American English (as I know only too well, being a Brit in the USA). An item of paper money in England is called a 'note', while in the USA it's called a 'bill'.

Meaningful and unambiguous naming is less of a problem lower down in the navigation hierarchy since the context aids disambiguation, but is critical at the top levels of your navigation hierarchy. Also important is grouping elements by 'type'. Most sites generally break down into two types of entities: the content itself, and information about the content or site. Such information about the content (called meta- information) should be grouped together, and remain distinct from the content-related categories. For example, meta-information elements such as About Us, Feedback, Search, should be grouped together.

Hierarchy and the Filing System - Page 3
Design and Architecture of a Content-Rich Web Site
Accessibility and Usability - Page 5