The Search For Meaning

In Harnessing The Power Of Hypertext, we examined the wily structure of the Web -- an inter-related hypertext environment that's difficult to tame.

Difficult, but not impossible.

One way to help guide newcomers -- and, even better, return visitors -- through your site is to provide them with a map.

The Apple Computer website is a labyrinth of microsites dedicated to various hardware, software, tools and support. The site is fairly large and graphics-intensive -- meaning, it's slow and difficult to navigate, so chances are visitors will arrive, get confused and take off.

To make things easier for the user, Apple built a detailed site map outlining the various major categories with hyperlinked bullet points for the subcategories.

The problem with site maps is people tend to not care -- or not notice -- them. So what do you do?

Many sites now offer "breadcrumb trails" on any given page, so no matter how you arrive at their site you know where you are and where you can go.

EXAMPLE: The About.com Mystery Science Theater 3000 guide. At the top of the page, there's a red bullet with the text "You are here" beside it. Then, there's a hyperlinked menu, telling you that you're in the MST3K Fans area which is connected to the Entertainment area which is connected to the About.com main page.

Want to see other Entertainment venues? Click "Entertainment." Want to see what other attractions are offered? Click "About.com."

As you can see, breadcrumb trails give your visitors:

• context, so they can better interpret the meaning of the page
• direct access to a higher level of the site (for continued searching)

Of course, Web users are impatient, so they may not stick around long enough to learn the structure of your website. But you can increase your chances of them learning to love your site by offering quality content organized in a meaningful manner.

How can you organize your content so it's meaningful? First, you need to decide why your website exists. Is it solely to satisfy a managerial whim? Then you're probably heading for a crash.

Would you read a book that had no point? Would you watch a movie that didn't offer anything: no character development, no plot movement, no nothing?

Chances are, you'd pass on pointless products because life is short and you've got stuff to do. Things that don't help you, or entertain you, or make you feel a certain way, are obstacles.

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