As you design web pages, think graphically even when all you're presenting is pure information. Good web page design means you present information by organizing it logically and making it visually attractive. Use the following tips to keep browser eyes on your information pages:
- For large sites, prioritize and group navigation into a primary, secondary, and tertiary set, each containing no more than five to seven top-level choices.
- Ideally, build your site outline with no more than three levels: Main idea, topic, and subtopic.
- Choose a standard set of symbols for the site map. Use boxes to represent pages, cylinders to represent databases, and then connect everything together with lines and arrows.
- Build wireframes for each unique page layout in your site to detail the interaction design and content display. It’s important that they do not convey anything that can be misconstrued as a visual design look and feel. They should stay nice and boring. Wireframes act merely as a diagram view of your page layout and interaction, like the one shown here:
