Week 5- Feedback & Navigational Structures

Feedback

This week we all showed our finished IDM site mockups. I was optimistic about my design until I got my feedback. The feedback really opened my eyes and I learned that my design was not very good at all. In fact I was told the original IDM site is better which really hit home to me. I noted down all the constructive criticism:

-The icons are too unclear as to what they link to
-The layout is not structured properly
-It is not clear enough
-Too many thick grey borders

Learning about how bad my design was just made me determined to improve. After looking at all the other designs other students made, I could see which way to go in terms of my next site design.

Navigational Structures

After the feedback, we had a look at different types of sitemaps. There are many different styles when it comes to sitemaps because they used in a variety of ways, not just in web design. Here are the main ones you are likely to encounter:

Linear

This one is the most basic of the sitemaps. It allows for only one path to one goal. In web design this means there's only one general direction to take with every link you click further into the site. This linear system is also used for things like looking through photos on your phone for example. 

Out/In

This navigation relies a lot on the main central display. Clicking a link will take you to a different page but in order to get to a new page, you must first go through the central page to get to your destination. An example outside of the web would be a mobile phone operating system because all the apps are located in one central place.

Hierarchy

This is one of the most widely used structures. In order to navigate to different areas, the user must first go to a higher level of the structure which dictates a section of the navigation.

Simultaneous Access

This setup is used all the time in websites. This structure follows similar principles to the hierarchy structure but with one major difference; it allows the user to jump to any part of the site from  any section. This makes navigation more fluid because it requires less clicks to reach the user's destination. A real world example could be driving because you can reach our destination by taking any number of routes.

Web

A web structure is the least organised and has no real structure. You can get to anywhere and there is no obvious flow or main section to the navigation. A photo gallery in a random playlist is a good example.

Mixed

Whilst Simultaneous Access is the most popular layout, nearly every navigational structure is a mixed one.