A web is a set of
documents with little or no actual overall structure; the anything typing each
page together is a link (see figure 2.13). visitors drift from document to
document,. Following the links around.
For an example of such a site, visit Wikipedia at
http://wikipedia. Org. Wikipedia is an encyclopedia written and maintained by
the public. Anyone can write a new article or edit an existing article, and the
site is very loosely organized. Articles that reference topics discussed in
other articles link to them, creating a web organization scheme. Wikipedia has
no hierarchical organization; you’re expected to find
the topics you’re interested in by following links or using
the search functionality.
Web structures tend to be free-floating and enable visitors
to wander aimlessly through the content. Web structures are excellent for
content that’s intended to be meandering or unrelated or when you want to
encourage browsing. The world wide web itself is, of course, a giant web
structure.
In the context of a website, the environment is organized so
that each page is a specific location (and usually contains a description of
that location). From that location, you
can move in several different directions, exploring the environment much in the
way you would move from room to room in
a building in the real world (and getting lost just as easily). The initial
home page, for example, might look something like the one shown in figure 2.14
From that page, you then can explore once of the links, for
example, to go into the building, which takes you to the page shown in figure
2.15.
FIGURE 2.14 the home page for a web-based virtual
environment.
FIGURE 2.15 another page in the web environment.
Each room has a set of links to each adjacent room in the
environment. By following the links, you can explore the rooms in the
environment.
The problem with web organizations is that you can get lost
in them to easily-just as you might in the world you’re exploring in the
example. Without any overall structure to the content, figuring out the
relationship between where you are, where you’re going and, often, where you’ve
been, us difficult. Context is difficult, and often the only way to find your
way back out of a web structure is to retrace you steps. Web structures can be
extremely disorienting and immensely frustrating if you have a specific goal in
mind.
To solve the problem of disorientation, you can use clues on
each page. Here are two ideas:
·
Provide a way out. Return to home page is an
excellent link.
·
Include a map of the overall structure on each
page, with a “you are here” indication somewhere in the map. It doesn’t ha we
to be an actual visual map, but providing some sort of context goes along way
toward preventing your visitors from getting lost.
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