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2. Development
3. Information architecture
4. Site structure

Breadth versus depth

In principle, information is organised hierarchically. When determining the site structure, a decision must be made on whether to organise the pages horizontally or vertically. A structure that is too deep means the user will have to click too often to find the information he/she needs. A structure in which all navigation elements are on the first level only works if the number of elements is limited. More than ten items in the main navigation may confuse the user.

Grouping related elements

Grouping related elements tends to be a tricky aspect of determining the site structure. This grouping must be based on the place where (most) users will expect to find certain information. Card sorting is a method often used to discover what users consider a logical structure.

Sorting by priority

Subsequently, main and sub elements for navigation must be sorted according to priority. Here too, this must correspond to the priorities of the (most important) group of users.

Flexible design of the structure

When setting up the structure, future expansion must be taken into account as well. This means that the structure must be flexible enough to allow for new elements to be added in the future. Changing the structure of the site at a later stage may mean that the URLs of separate pages have to be changed. URLs should be rendered sustainable (see Stable, unique URLs).

Methods of organisation

There are a number of ways to organise the site structure. A few methods are:

Task-oriented

This is based on tasks a user wishes to carry out (this applies particularly to Content Management Systems and Intranets).

By subject

Start pages and directories are organised this way.

By target group

Companies that provide services to both private customers and business often distinguish them as separate target groups.