Site Maps

Dividing up information for a website or app is an essential task. 0:00 The structure of your site should make sense to you and your users. 0:04 But sometimes the amount of information we have to deal with makes it 0:08 difficult to truly grasp the full scope of the website project. 0:12 Retail sites that offer hundreds or thousands of products have to deal with 0:16 this, but you don't have to be Amazon or eBay to find yourself confused. 0:20 Any website can get a little muddled if its content isn't divided up properly. 0:26 So, another tool I want to mention to help with your IA 0:31 efforts is something called a site map. 0:34 Site maps are visual diagrams of website pages and sections arranged and 0:37 connected so you can see the relationship between everything on your site. 0:43 Site maps are really helpful for quickly grasping what a web project covers. 0:48 So not only can it help you as you build a site, but project managers and other team 0:53 members can also benefit from this visual reminder of where everything lives. 0:58 For example, here's a website for TW Walsh. 1:03 If you're a band or 1:07 artist, you can hire him to master your record before you release it. 1:08 Now, his website is very straight-forward. 1:12 He doesn't need to post more than what you see in the main menu, so the sitemap for 1:14 his website would look like this. 1:19 Now, not all sites are so simple. 1:21 But by looking at a sitemap you can quickly see at a glance 1:24 where everything is on a site. 1:28 Here's a site map for a different website. 1:31 And you can see it's a little more complex. 1:33 There are six main sections of content, and 1:36 some feature more categories of content than others. 1:38 In fact, the news and events section has three categories of content, and 1:41 one of those has its own subcategories as well. 1:46 With larger sites, site maps can get pretty complex, but 1:50 you could also create a site map for each section. 1:54 This way you focus on one area at a time without needing to create a site map 1:57 that's too crammed. 2:02 By mapping everything out you'll also know if you've covered a topic or not. 2:03 And when it comes time to add a new section or 2:08 category you can see where it should go. 2:11 It's a helpful way to keep a development or design team on the same page. 2:14 So there are plenty of benefits to mapping out your site. 2:18 That being said, let's talk about how to create one. 2:23 Earlier, I showed you a site map for TW Walsh's website and for that, 2:27 I used an online tool called Glue Maps and made it myself. 2:31 You can create a site map there, export it, and 2:36 share it with other people on your team. 2:38 It's pretty simple. 2:41 Professional developers might use a tool like Visio to create flowcharts for 2:43 their complex site maps, but another option is, again, Trello. 2:47 This tool is so flexible you could create a series of lists for 2:52 each category or section. 2:56 Add cards to represent your pages, 2:58 move them around, have teammates suggest changes. 3:00 There's a lot you could do. 3:03 So you have your pick of online tools or 3:05 you could keep it low tech and use sticky notes. 3:08 Get yourself a white board and start laying out your pages, one page per note, 3:13 and arrange them how they are or how you want to build a site. 3:17 Sometimes these low tech solutions are easier to work with. 3:22 Just remember to snap a picture of this before the stickies lose their stick. 3:25 So, in the end, site maps can be helpful tools for 3:30 organizing not just information, but your ideas about how to divide up a site and 3:34 give everything smart, intuitive labels. 3:40 You can look at a structure and see if it makes sense, or 3:42 the pages within a section and figure out what doesn't belong. 3:46 Just be sure to choose a site map solution that's easy to use and understand so 3:49 your team can get right to work creating the best experience possible 3:54