Site organization

For large sites and product suites, I prefer to do my site maps in Excel. They are easier to read, to update, to share over email and to print.

I love this Boxes and Arrows article that tells how to prepare an Excel file and import it into Visio to convert it to a conventional map: see Automating Diagrams with Visio. But I have not had any issues with clients being unable to read and understand my maps.

Fidelity UK sitemap, for advisors, advised clients, wealth managers and retail customers

This particular site map had been originally created by another IA in Visio, where in order to include down to the fourth level of content, the product maps were kept in four separate files that weighed 2M apiece and required 63 sheets of paper to print them. Mine extends down to the eighth level of content and fits all the products in one 172K file that prints 5 sheets of paper. To update it, add rows and start typing — no tiresome squeezing and pushing boxes around, or creating and breaking connections. Moving to this format cut the time taken to update the map from 45 minutes to 5 minutes, tops.

Fidelity UK product suite site map, November 2008

Size YOU! Knitting design studio site

Size YOU! is an idea for putting a knitting design studio on the web for the consumer market. This is an idea I’ve been developing for awhile, and it was born of the way that I myself design knitwear: once I have an idea for a garment, I measure myself carefully, choose a material, measure how many stitches across and down per inch, and then calculate the whole thing out in Excel. After I’m done, I have a pattern that anyone can use to custom fit the garment to their figure and chosen material.

So what if this were a website, and you could take basic patterns, customize them visually on a model set to your own measurements, choose and buy the yarn and materials for it, right there — and maybe share the results on your favorite knitting community site or there in the online shop?

Site map for SizeYOU knitting design studio site, March 2009