Let their fingers do the walking: Organizing your content online
By Pattie LaCroix
January 22, 2007
Because we know that the vast majority of your online audience will scan your pages, clicking on links that catch their attention, skipping through your navigation with a predisposition to consume only half of the written material they otherwise would offline, it is essential that your information is organized intuitively.
Organizing your content online is time consuming and detailed work. It is often what holds up the production of a web site. It is, however, the most important piece of creating a dynamic online space for your constituencies. Today’s online experience is driven by content and the tools that you employ to allow your audience to engage with your content. This can take the form of blogs, podcasts, forums, syndicated content streams, and so on. What people are looking for online is current, relevant content that they can tailor to their own needs.
When organizing your content here are a few tips:
- It's all in the name: What you call your sections and sub-sections is the first and most important line of access to your content.
- Global navigation: This is your primary level of navigation and appears consistently on every page of your site. Common sections include: About Us, Our Programs, Donate, Search, Contact Us.
- Secondary navigation: The secondary or sub-navigation sections are the content that is contained within each primary navigational section. This is the second level of your content organization. On sites that are particularly dense with content you will find tertiary navigational sections, those sub-blocks of content found within your secondary navigational elements.
- Less is more: Ideally, your global navigation should not exceed nine or ten sections. It is simply too unwieldy for your audience to sift through more than that and it is difficult for them to determine what is really important on your site.
Typically, organizing your content is referred to as the Information Architecture, which essentially acts as the blueprint for the content on your site. Organizing your content can often feel like putting a big puzzle together. What is important to recognize, however, is that your end user may never experience the whole picture of your site. Once online, your audience will not experience your content in a linear fashion; they will scan your pages and skip throughout your information architecture. So it is important that each section contains value for your audience that is not dependent upon them visiting another section of your site first, or ever for that matter.
In order to develop your information architecture you will need to know:
- What are your online goals?
- Who are you speaking to?
- What are the key messages you wish to convey?
- How do you want your audience to engage with your content online?
- How will your site be integrated with your other programs?
- How will you determine success online?
Understanding this bigger picture of your content is the cornerstone upon which you will organize that content. It will provide you with the context, set the tone, and provide you with focus and a clear voice and purpose for your online content. Let the end user’s fingers to the walking on your site as they easily and quickly find what they are looking for. Don’t make them work hard to locate value on your web site. Ideally they should be able to locate the content they are looking for as easily as using the yellow pages.
Pattie LaCroix has provided strategic leadership in crafting integrated communications and fundraising strategies to nonprofits for more than a decade. As CEO of Catapult Media she is passionate about the power of storytelling in engaging your audience and building support for your work. You can reach Pattie at www.catapultmedia.ca.
