Site maps and blueprints
What is a site map?
A site map is a useful diagram that illustrates visually the components of your website and where they fit in with each other. You may have seen a site map used on a website as a navigational strategy to help you find your way around without clicking through to sections. It is usually discretely placed within the footer or header of a site.
What do I use a site map for?
A site map is used to help visualise your site, to see the relationship between pages and sections of your site. A site map also helps to communicate any orgainsational decisions and to track these decisions as they relate to the site.
Site maps are traditionally used in conjunction with Wireframes and User Paths to highlight and illustrate elements of the User Experience.
What do they look like?
There are quite a few different styles that you are able to use. Pick the one that you believe is most suited to how you, and your team will visualise the site.
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| Figure 1 Above, Image of Circle sitemap | Figure 2 Above, Image of Stacked sitemap |
| Figure 3 Below, Image of Workflow sitemap | Figure 4 Below, Image of alt Workflow Site map |
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What are their strength and weaknesses?
Like anything each approach has their own inherent strengths and weaknesses.
- Familiar: Commonly used by most web professionals. Provides information 'at a glance'.
- Creation: Can be created by using a wide range of readily available tools-including the trusty pen and paper! Can be a team effort.
- Time Consuming: It can be time consuming keeping the site map up to date if it changes regularly.
- Content Representation: It can be difficult representing some content adequately, for example Dynamic Content.
Who uses them?
- Designers and Developers: They use them to obtain a visual representation of the site and to determine how content relates to each other (and the site as a whole)
- Stakeholders: May use the site map to compare the current site with the visualised site-can also be used to compare with relevant competing web sites.
How much work should I expect to put into it?
You should not take more then two days work to create a site map-this is of course highly dependent on how intricate (i.e how many pages you have!) your site is and how much detail you wish to go into.