Several principles of information architecture (Part II)

3. Information tree should be as narrow and shallow as possible, and maintain balance (information structure width and depth)

The information tree can be regarded as an orderly information carrier formed after the information in the information collection is organized in some way. When describing the information tree, the organization of information is often depicted as a tree-shaped structure. For an information architecture, there are two goals for organizing information: one is the order of information, and the other is the formation of information trees.

And the design of the information tree on the site is mainly reflected in the design of navigation, first of all, we look at the information tree width and depth of the relationship:

&http://www.aliyun.com/zixun/aggregation/37954.html ">nbsp; large width, so that the information tree is lighter, you can clearly display the information on the interface, users can reduce the number of clicks, But it is easy to make the first level navigation load information too much, users are not easy to find the focus and internal organizational relationship;

· Greater depth, so that the information tree narrowed, the interface is focused, clear organizational relationships, but because users can not through the first level of navigation to get all the organizational relationships, click and find difficulty increased.

Therefore, the width and depth of the information tree are interrelated, how to keep the information tree balance in the relationship, and make the information structure narrow and shallow, is one of the basic principles of information architecture.

Next we look at the history of the Evolution of Amazon (Amazon.com) navigation (data and image collation from Lukew's functioning Form):

In 1998, the Amazon site had only two major categories: books and music. Even with the addition of some categories, such as audio and gift, horizontal Tab navigation can be extended very smoothly, and through the different colors, it is easy to distinguish between products.

From 1999 to 2000, Amazon continued to add new classifications and widen its information tree. Stores, toys and games, appliances and electronic greeting cards These new product categories have been added to the tab-navigation label into two rows.

In 2001, Amazon tried to remove all Categories tab, leaving only the store directory and specialty store (store directory/featured Stores). This redesign, using catalogs to replace the growing assortment, featured stores and provides a convenient way for users to access common (or popular) categories. The information tree becomes lighter, but the depth is deepened, and the user is unable to glance at the navigation or more information.

Today's Amazon, the classification of all commodities have been restructured, such as the Movies,music,games three have similar attributes of the classification of goods, based on a new layer of 2-level navigation, the revised Amazon navigation information tree width and depth more reasonable, Balanced information structure with clearer logic and users can get help from navigation.

Attachment: Several principles of information architecture (Part I)

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