Designing the Blog, Chapter 5: Information Architecture
Previously: Introduction, 1, 2, 3, 4
As evidenced by the sheer volume of material written on the subject and the weight accorded it by experienced web professionals, IA or information architecture is a core aspect of any website that must be done properly for the site to ‘work’.
It fundamentally influences how users will interact with the site by delineating subsets of the data contained in the site into defined areas, creating an association between sections and therefore guiding the visitor down this path or the other.
One example from a project I am currently working on – the website is for a bank, but there are two distinct ways we can architect the site. The first is the more traditional breakdown by product, sections would be “Current Account”, “Credit Cards”, “Personal Loans, “Mortgages”, etc.; but an alternative way to present the site would be to reduce the top-level of information down to two sections – “Personal Finance” and “Business Finance”. This minor has the potential to improve the focus of the site by moving it to a more user-centred model, providing the sub-sections are also architected well.
However – this site is not a bank, it is a blog, so let’s look at how blogs are generally architected. How have the so-called ‘A list’ chosen to build their sites?
Zeldman: this site is actually quite badly architected, in my opinion. There seem to be two parallel blogs (The Daily Report and My Glamorous Life), links to selected posts going back to 1995 and the ubiquitous ‘about’ page, then there are also sidebar links to a blogroll, more selected posts, and contact details.
stopdesign: Doug Bowman’s site is a little more traditional, with a portfolio, articles, sandbox (“examples”) and links (“see also”) sitting alongside the blog itself.
SimpleBits: Cederholm again goes for tradition – blog, portfolio (“work” and “publications”), about and contact all sit at the top of the IA tree.
Asterisk: more of the same; about, archives, links and portfolio (“resume”) are joined by an FAQ area on Keith’s site.
Airbag, Adactio, Authentic Boredom, Mezzoblue, Mike Industries – they all pretty much follow the same format. There are a couple more that break the mould – Shaun Inman and DxF spring to mind – but by and large it seems that simple is best when it comes to blog IA, and this will be the guiding principle for my own architecture.
One thing all these sites have in common is the information presented on the homepage – excerpts from recent blog entries, perhaps with lists of slightly older entries and summaries of other sections. We’ll get onto that next week, in Chapter 6: Reader-Blog Interaction Design.
Filed under: Designing the Blog.
Bookmark this article with del.icio.us
Previously: Now I'm nearly 30
Next: Today has been a good day