I'm going to have to put my foot down on the no-site-map side of the fence. A site-map is a fallback tool for programmers and designers, not for users. It is a sign of lazy design and there are a million better options. A good search tool will beat the snot out of a site-map.
Additionally, site maps reinforce the internal architecture of a site, which is useful for only experts and can be obtained within the location bar anyway. They are a way for the implementation model to creep into the user's way and make them stumble. Too many sites on the web force users to remember where things are like they are a hard-drive. This is the reason search appeared in the first place, and the reason in-site search is becoming more and more popular. Lets take really the only two ways to do a site map: A) A giant list of all your pages - If your site is small enough for this to not be pages and pages, you likely didn't need a site map in the first place because your regular navigation shouldn't have failed the user. B) A /- collapsible file-tree style list of all your pages - This option, even when only one layer deep, hides content and makes the user hand-search through the options, opening and closing nodes just to find a page. The best option is a search. If the user is lost, which is the only logical reason to have a site-map, they know what they want to find, and a proper search will find them that. They won't user your site-map to find random stuff, cause your site should have facilitated that on it's own. Either through contextual links in its content or a robust navigation system. In general, I'd like to see more sites move away from hierarchical menus and lists entirely. Or at least provide much better options. Like www.apple.com 's search tool, which I hate if you hit enter, but love if you just type. That beats the pants off a site-map. Will . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=33722 ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
