Nik, Yes, site structure should be clear and logical, but at what point in the URL is the URL no longer important to users? I'd really like to do a study to find out. But my guess is that if your navigation is clear and logical, users won't care what the site structure is. I'd say the only time a URL is important to the user is if someone has copied it and sent it them via email or IM. And in that case it's important in deciding if they want to click on it or not. Do they trust the URL or not.
Going back to the REI example, does it matter that the URL for "Camping & Hiking" is "http://www.rei.com/category/4500001"; and not "rei.com/campingandhiking/"? I don't think so. The navigation shows that "Health and Safety" is a subset of "Camping & Hiking", but there's no "/campingandhiking/healthandsafety/". Decoupling the navigation from site structure allows you an amazing amount of freedom. Yes, sometimes it is a 1:1 to structure, but it doesn't have to be. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=46723 ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
