Principles and guidelines

Principles underlying the navigation and structure of content on the University website.

The structure and navigation of the sites produced by EdWeb have been designed carefully following extensive user testing and consideration of the University IA principles.

Information Architecture guidelines - Website Support wiki [EASE login required]

Navigation

The website navigational options and labelling should negate the need for visitors to use their browser navigational tools (such as the back button) because they have confidence in the website interface.

Our aim is to minimise the need for the user to click outside of the website interface while navigating the site.

Avoid choice overload

Any one navigational panel or grouping of links should not contain more than 9 choices. There are exceptions, but only where there is a clear reason for such groupings:

• Months of the year
• Staff lists in alphabetic order
• Modules of a particular course

Clear page purpose

Be clear about what you want to achieve with a page and stick to it. Summaries (which are required in EdWeb) are a good way to provide an overview of the page's purpose.

Structuring content for users

It is important to understand both the goals of your unit and your audiences' needs:

• What do you want to achieve online?
• What does your audience want to know or do?

You need to consider what content you need to generate to meet these requirements and how you can organise this content in a way that meets audience needs and expectations.

How the navigation is displayed

Key structural elements - how your site structure displays on EdWeb