Information Architecture for the World Wide Web, Second Edition

Design Sketches

Once you’ve developed high-level blueprints and architectural page mockups, you’re ready to collaborate with your graphic designer to create design sketches on paper of major pages in the web site. In the research phase, the design team began to develop a sense of the desired graphic identity or look and feel. The technical team assessed the information technology infrastructure of the organization and the platform limitations of the intended audiences, and they understood what’s possible with respect to features such as dynamic content management and interactivity. And, of course, the architect designed the high-level information structure for the site. Design sketches are a great way to pool the collective knowledge of these three teams in a first attempt at interface design for the top-level pages of the site. This is a wonderful opportunity for interdisciplinary user interface design.

Using the wireframes as a guide, the designer now begins sketching pages of the site on sheets of paper. As the designer sketches each page, questions arise that must be discussed. Here is a sample sketching session dialog:

Programmer: “I like what you’re doing with the layout of the main page, but I’d like to do something more interesting with the navigation system.”

Designer: “Can we implement the navigation system using pull-down menus? Does that make sense architecturally?”

Architect: “That might work, but it would be difficult to show context in the hierarchy. How about a tear-away ...