Rough around the edges

Using “Site maps” as a mean of navigation

Over the years, technology has matured and so has our ability to conceive, ideate and design better (in general). Yet we still rely, more often than necessary, on a tool designed and conceived years ago because our navigation means were either; too difficult to understand, not compatible with a plethora of devices (i.e. screen readers) among others. We still rely on using Site maps, after all this years.

Why target site map? Why stop there? Hmm good question.

A website is nothing more than a story with interactive structure (wow, I had no clue I could think so “elegantly”). As an Interaction Designer / Information Architect it falls on me, and I gladly accept it, to craft a navigation system that helps address users needs and influences users, helping craft a series of interactions and paths so that our users have a pleasant experience (can’t find the link to a Boxes & Arrows podcast regarding “user experience” and how WE - read IxD’s and IA’s - don’t create experiences, we create elements that influence it though, I’ll update this post when I find it).

So, let’s get technical for a bit - here’s Wikipedia definition of a “Site map”:

A site map (or sitemap) is a representation of the architecture of a web site. It can be either a document in any form used as a planning tool for web design, or a web page that lists the pages on a web site, typically organized in hierarchical fashion. This helps visitors and search engine bots find pages on the site.

While some developers argue that site index is a more appropriately used term to relay page function, web visitors are used to seeing each term and generally associate both as one and the same. However, a site index is often used to mean an A-Z index that provides access to particular content, while a site map provides a general top-down view of the overall site contents.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Site_map

So, a “Site map” is in essence a bunch of links (ordered) on a page, it’s important because search engines will pick it up and index it (h1 tags and all that jazziness). It could, potentially, offer users who have certain technologies blocked by their provider (read Flash in a corporate setting) could access the site’s content. Great.

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The ‘making’ of a blog, not an easy task to complete.

Ahh - you got suckered into visiting my blog? I pity, but at the same time thank, you.

I’ve dabbed into blogging numerous times over the past couple of years (I was actually told sometime last week that couple means "two" and should never be used in place of "few", so I apologize for that - where I come from, couple means any number that is less than "too much", I know, intense.) but I never stick to it, I end up commenting on numerous blogs, giving ideas to others and always pondering "what if I started blogging?".

Today, I wonder no more. I followed advice given by @daveIxD and @whitneyhess (don’t tell me you’re wondering about those ‘@’ signs - Twitter is the new information sharing platform! Don’t believe me? @Armano will definitely convince you) and I did the "one-click install" for the WordPress Plugin provided by Dreamhost. Please note, "One-click install" doesn’t imply it being easy, specially if you’re like me and decide to take the "Expert" route without any knowledge of the plugin and what are the different practices to setting it up. It took me close to 3 hours to "set it up" and I’m still not done.

And with that - we’ve arrived to the point of this, my first blog post.

If you’re pondering whether to blog or not, I’ll tell you what I told my inner self "it’s up to you, do it because you want to, not because you have to", somewhat simple rule.

Made up your mind? Great - this, if I could do it over again, is a list of things to do, prior to actually "blogging" that I’d follow:

1. Consult with your host into the setup for any publication plugins. For the purpose of this post and due to my limited (fine, VERY limited) knowledge of anything else, we’ll keep this to WordPress.
2. Go to the WordPress site and read the "Where to Start "
3. Blog!

Yeah, that’s it.

Welcome to my blog - I’d say "hang on tight, it’s going to be a bumpy ride" but it’s way too cliche.

Until my next post,

Eduardo