The first step in many user experience (UX) projects is to understand the relationship between the website structure and how the user looks for information or completes a task. These deliverables include site maps, concept models, and decision flows.
This site map for a corporate human relations department illustrates the relationship between the home page, landing pages, and specific topic content pages. In this case, the department had 25 individually maintained websites with no common look-and-feel or navigational schema.
Decision Flows
This decision flow for a corporate human relations department illustrates how a user would locate a particular article using either the website’s global navigation or site search. Another option available, in this case, is Google.
This decision flow illustrates all of the decision points that a user will encounter during the search for a particular piece of information or completion of a task. In this particular case, the user’s path includes three potential usability issues.
