Web sites can vary enormously in their style, content, organization, and purpose, but all Web sites that are primarily designed to act as information resources share some basic characteristics.
Home pages
All Web sites are organized around a "home page," that acts as a point of entry
into the complex of Web pages in your site. In hierarchical organizations,
your home page sits at the top of the chart, and all pages in your Web site
should contain a direct link back to that home page. The World Wide Web URL
for your home page is the Web "address" you will use to point users to your
Web site, and the address of your home page could become every bit as important
as your street address or department address in the years to come. The top
of your home page will be the first thing Web users see when accessing your
site (or your whole company, in the case of corporate Web sites), so the proper
design of home pages is crucial to the success of your site. Design strategies
for home pages vary, based on the function and needs of typical users of the
site, the esthetic and design goals for the site, and on the nature and complexity
of the organization of the Web site as a whole.
Graphic or text menus
The most basic layout decision you will make about your home page concerns
how heavily you will use graphics on the page. Most corporate, institutional,
and education home pages display at least a small graphic banner across the
top of the home page, and in commercial sites the trend is rapidly moving
toward menus constructed from complex, full-page graphics that emulate the
look and functions of CD-ROM multimedia title pages. While strong graphics
can be effective at grabbing a browser's attention, large graphic menus impose
long loading times for pages, especially for users linking to the Internet
via modems or slower network connections. Even if the user is accessing your
Web site at Ethernet speeds (10 Mbits/sec) graphic menus may still load ten
times slower than text-based lists of links.
Who is the audience for the home page?
This dichotomy between slow-loading but attractive graphics-based home pages
and fast-loading but prosaic text-based home pages also reflects the need
to address different audiences, with different expectations. The goals for
most Web sites are the transmission of internal information (to students,
employees, and existing clients) and communicating with potential clients
and the general Web-browsing public. Kodak has opted for graphic home page
design, but the layout is carefully designed not to exceed the dimensions
of the average office monitor. By keeping the graphic moderate in size the
page loads reasonably quickly for a graphic menu.
The relatively plain, mostly text-based home page for the W3C offers a very efficient ratio of links per kilobyte of page size, but at some cost in pure visual appeal. The page is fast-loading and well designed for its audience of Web specialists, but would not attract the average browser through presentation alone:
Don't choose - have it both ways
The best way to meet the needs of both casual browsers and highly targeted
frequent users is to offer alternative views of your Web site. One approach
is to make a visually attractive main home page aimed at the general audience
of Web browsers, but also offer a more text-oriented alternate home page
that emphasizes rapid access to information via detailed text menus. Another
approach is to use a graphic banner up at the top of the home page, followed
by a dense set of text-based links. The Library of Congress's Congressional
information Web site "Thomas" reflects this dual approach, with a moderate
graphic topping a dense but well-organized set of text links:
Managing time
Many Web sites must be frequently updated so the information doesn't get stale.
But the presence of the new information may not be obvious to readers of your
Web site unless you make a systematic effort to let them know about it. If
items listed on the menus on your home page are updated you could just put
a "NEW" graphic next to each updated item. You should also date every one of
your Web pages, and update that as information changes so that users can be
sure that they have the latest version of things. However, if your site is
complex, with many levels of information spread over dozens (or hundreds) of
pages you might be better off making a "What's New" page that is specifically
designed to inform users that information in your site has been updated. You
may also want to use a "What's New" page as a university or institutional newsletter,
emphasizing timely information in your organization.
Menus, submenus, and home pages
Unless your site is very small you will probably need a number of submenu pages
that the user enters from general category listing on your home page. In
complex sites with dozens of topic areas it is not practical to load up the
home page of a Web site with dozens of links the page gets too long to load
in a timely manner, and the sheer complexity of long pages may be off-putting
to many users.
Each major submenu in effect becomes a mini-home page for that section of your
Web site. For specialized, detailed menus you may encourage frequent users
to link directly to a submenu in your Web site. Thus the submenus could become
alternate home pages oriented to specific groups of users. Just make sure to
include a basic set of links to other sections of your site on each submenus,
and most important of all, always include a link to a menu or home page on
every Web page in your site.
"Other related sites" catalogues
The World Wide web is growing so rapidly that even the large commercial Web
index services like Yahoo are only partial listings of the information that
is accessible from the Web. Often the first sets of links Web users make
when they begin to build their own Web sites are collections of favorite
links to sites related to their professions, industries, or personal interests.
In a corporate or institutional site a well-edited, well-maintained "other
sites" page may be the most valuable and heavily-used resource in your Web
site.
Bibliographies, indexes, appendices
The concept of "documents" in electronic environments like the Web pages is
often flexible, and the economics and logistics of digital publishing make
it possible to provide more information to your site users without the costs
associated with paper documents. To make a report available to colleagues on
paper you would have to print a copy for each person. Costs and practicality
dictate that paper reports be very concise, and without much supporting material
or appendices thus your audience is often left without access to the information
upon which the writers based their conclusions for no reason other than the
high cost of printing on paper. Aside from the main body of reports, you may
wish to include lists of resources that would not normally be included in corporate
reports because of space and cost considerations, but which could be made available
in a Web site. Bibliographies, glossaries, appendices of information that might
be too bulky to load into a task force report or committee recommendations
document could be placed in a Web site instead, making the information available
to other researchers without over-stuffing reports with material of interest
to only a few readers.
Frequently asked questions
The web and other Internet-based media have evolved a unique institution, the
FAQ, or "Frequently Asked Questions" page where the most commonly asked questions
from users are listed along with answers. FAQ Web pages are ideal for Web
sites designed to provide support and information to a working group within
an institution, or to a professional or trade group that maintains a central
office staff. Office staff and public relations personnel know that most
questions new users ask have been asked and answered many times before. By
making a well-designed FAQ page and referring users to it you could significantly
improve the user's understanding of the information and services offered
through your Web site or professional group. The FAQ page could also sharply
reduce the time demands on your support staff who normally answer those routine,
repetitive questions from users or clients.
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