Operation Manual

Web Design from Scratch 85
Over time, you’ll be adding content. The section pages will probably
evolve into menu pages, with content migrating to newly-added Level 3
pages. You’ll be prepared for this growth if you’ve started out with a
clear model of your site’s structure.
Navigation
Web sites present unique challenges that don’t arise in the world of
print. (When was the last time you even thought of “navigating”
through a book?) The section/level model we’ve been using provides a
suitable framework—assuming it works with your content—because
the basic form of a “tree” is about as intuitive as any path system is
likely to get. But with users coming in through side doors, or traversing
hyperlinks that leapfrog from one part of the site to another, it’s up to
you to ensure the tree doesn’t turn into a maze.
Unless your site is extremely simple, don’t expect sequential page
numbering to serve a visitor’s needs. In fact, the only person who
should have to contend with page numbers is you—because WebPlus
requires you to supply a page number each time you define a page-to-
page hyperlink. That means you’ll need to maintain a separate listing of
your site’s page numbers (corresponding to pages in the original
publication).
Rather than page numbers, what’s needed are visual cues on each page
that convey: Which section am I in now? and Where am I in relation to
the section menu?
Text can help. It’s common sense to use page titles or headlines that
identify what’s on the page. By using somewhat larger headline text for
Level 2 (section menu) page titles, smaller subheads for Level 3, and so
on, you can reinforce the user’s sense of how far removed they are
from the Home page.
For communicating section identity, you can use a variety of
techniques, preferably in combination. Sections can use color-coding,
applied to headlines and/or graphic elements. You can incorporate the
section name into the composition by placing it as free text on the page,
aligned with background elements.