When a user visits a new site they make mental models to navigate content they have not encountered before. Thus balancing content in a consistent and logical way will help the ease of creating mental models for users. The goal is to build a structure of content that feels natural and does not mislead users.
The site map above was drafted during the last class. I was intrigued by hierarchical structures due to their pervasiveness in our world. It is commonly used in a lot of websites I use as well. Even Pitchfork.com utilizes hierarchy as it lists a main menu on its homepage and multiple sub-sites as you click them. However, with further investigation there was crossover in content. Best New Music is a main menu topic but also a sub-site of Reviews. Thus I decided my drafted site structure was lacking cross over.
Users don’t navigate sites in a purely hierarchical path. Instead it users often cross the hierarchy horizontally. For example, you want to order a new dress for spring. You visit your favorite e-commerce site and find the perfect dress and you see listings on the sidebar for sandals and a sun hat that perfectly matches. This site is realized that horizontally crossing the hierarchy to different topics from the main menu (shoes and accessories) will benefit usability and customer experience and the company, as it will hopefully generate to more sales.
Thus cross listing pages will help usability and casual browsing. So I decided to create a new site structure that would increase horizontal crossing but also keep the overall hierarchy. I also decided to be more specific with content.
The organization scheme of this site structure is topical. Since this site is about various topics in information architecture it makes the most sense to group them in a topical (yet subjective) scheme. However, since the posts are developed and written over time, a hybrid scheme will be implemented after as the content will be arranged chronologically.
Information Architecture 