Logical Organization in Web Design

by Ellen Foster
Web Design School Review Columnist

You have well-written, accurate, and interesting content. You’ve got an eye-pleasing web design. What more, dear web designer, could you possibly need? The answer is a solid organizational foundation. No matter how shiny and bright your web design appears on the surface, it won’t get the job done unless you’ve put in the kind of nuts and bolts thinking that will produce a logical network of information. As a web designer, you need to be an architect who understands the relationships between elements—if you don’t, how can you expect it of your site visitors?

Web Designers Can Take a Cue from Psychology

According to research attributed to cognitive psychologists, our short-term memory can only accommodate four to seven pieces of information. When website visitors seek information, they tend to do so in smaller doses. Keep the simplicity of smaller chunks of content in mind—navigating and utilizing the information on your web design shouldn’t be rocket science.

Simple Steps to Web Design Organization

If all this talk of organizational architecture makes your head spin, relax. When you break it down into steps, it becomes akin to common sense. Start at the beginning: determine the content for your website. Then break the content down into logical units. Decide which units are more or less important and use these ideas to structure the relationship between these units. Now that you have your information system, build your web design around it. When you’re finished, put the icing on the cake by analyzing your site’s aesthetic properties as well as the functional ones.

Source

Site Design

About the Author

Ellen Foster is a freelance writer and teacher. She has taught students aged 5 to 45.

Posted at 11:31 AM on April 3, 2007

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