Information architecture

Linknote — 18 April 2018 — 140 words

Design for navigational momentum and unity

When trying to persuade people not to overload their navigation menus, I have often drawn an analogy with road signs. These must be a model of brevity, because drivers need to be able to digest them quickly.

Web users may not be travelling at 60mph, but they still want to get their stuff done quickly.

I enjoyed this Gerry McGovern article that draws a similar analogy:

The core purpose of navigation is to help you move forward. Designing digital navigation is not that different from designing navigation for a road. You always want to be able to help people maintain their momentum and get to their destination as quickly as possible. The essence of momentum is to help people move forward, and this is the essential purpose of navigation—to help people move forward.

Linknote — 16 April 2018 — 31 words

Human-centred approaches — User experience — User research

The information architecture of libraries part 1: Dewey Decimal Classification

This article is a bit of a sales pitch, but I enjoyed this research into how intuitive the Dewey Decimal Classification is.

Article — 10 March 2015 — 1,640 words

History of the University of St Andrews prototype homepage project

Digital — User experience — Web

Work: Prototype homepage

Adapted from a post originally published on the University of St Andrews Digital Communications team blog. The University of St Andrews prototype homepage aimed at external audiences has been unveiled this week. It is the outcome of over a year of work. It has been an eventful year for the digital communications team. One year […]

Article — 7 March 2014 — 678 words

The new Study at St Andrews website has launched

Business — User experience — Web

Work: Study at St Andrews website

Adapted from a post originally published on the University of St Andrews Digital Communications team blog. After over 12 months of hard work from a lot of people, we have finally launched the new Study at St Andrews website, the replacement for the Admissions website. It has been a long and interesting journey. From the […]