On Feb 27, 2005, at 12:55 PM, Dimple Mohan wrote:

> What elements comprise your sitemap deliverable? At what stage of your

> production process do you start creating this deliverable? Do you 
> create one at all? If not how what are your approaches to offering 
> navigation and content type suggestions to your client? 

-----------------

Dimple--

I'm not certain what you meant by "sitemap deliverable"? 
Did you mean:
a) a deliverable that is part of the design process, an artifact used by
the project team? 
or
b)a site map page that is available to users as a part of the finished
site, as one way to find what they want on the site? 

I think you meant b). If so, in my experience a simple all-text
representation of the site's navigation structure is useful and gets
used. It's important to use layout and formatting to show the
relationship among links (which match the menu links on the site
itself). The value is in showing the information structure of the whole
site at once, in a representation that is clear and easy to read. The
link to the site map should always be available. Of course good metadata
and site searches are valuable, but they do not replace a good site map.

Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox from 2002 cites research that is still
relevant. It includes a screenshot of a sitemap.
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20020106.html

Regards--
Joy 
.....................
Joy Zigo
Interface Architect
HarperCollins Publishers
New York
212-207-7645
 
 
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