This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Creating a Storyboard
Many Web professionals use a technique called storyboarding. Storyboarding gives you a visual look at the layout of the site, and what type of organization you need to use. This will also give you a first look at how you want to build your navigational system.
A Linear Storyboard
The linear method connects pages one to another in an almost book-like fashion. The visitor has two choices: to move forward, or to move back... one page at a time.
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A Hierarchical Storyboard
Hierarchical navigation models have a distinct top-down design. The idea is that there is an index or home page, and that pages branches to other main pages, on and on. It’s resembles a business organizational chart, with the most important person at the top. This gives the visitor to your site a sense of direction, and is a popular Web organizational model.
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A Wheel Storyboard
The wheel method is like spokes connected to a main hub. The main hub would have links to all the other pages within the site; however, it does require the visitor to return to the hub before moving to another page.
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The Complete Storyboard
The Complete method takes into account the dynamic nature of the Web and its ability to navigate anywhere at any time. Typically it involves a main or index page, connected with a sophisticated menu system that allows the visitor to access any portion of the Web with 2 to 3 clicks, and a single click will always take them back to the main page. This is the most widely used navigational method.
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Once you’ve chosen and created a storyboard, you should have a thumbnail of each of the proposed pages within your Web site, and the file name for each page.