HIERARCHIES

 Probably the easiest and most logical way to structure your web documents is in a hierarchical or menu fashion, as illustrated in figure 2.3. hierarchies and menus lend themselves especially well to online and hypertext documents. Most online help systems, for example, are hierarchical, you start with a list or menu of major topics: selecting one leads you to a list of subtopics, which then leads you to a discussion about a particular topic. Different help systems have different levels, of course, but most follow this simple structure. 

FIGURE 2.3

hierarchical

Organization.

If you select fruits, you then follow a link “down “to a page about fruits (see figure 2.5). from there, you can go back to the home page, or you can select another link and go farther down into more specific information about particular fruits.In a hierarchical organization, visitors can easily see their position in the structure. Their choices are to move up for more general information or down for more specific information. If you provide a link back to the top level, your visitors can get back to some known position quickly and easily.

In hierarchies, the home page provides the most general overview to the content blow it. The home page also defines the main links for the pages farther down in the hierarchy. For example, a website about gardening might have a home page with the topics shown in figure2.4.