Navigating Information Space: Web site design and lessons from the built environment

The Web is the archetypal information space but even on a well designed site it can be difficult to find all the information you need. It is impossible to design a site so that all the information needs of all the users of the site are satisfied on a single screen. Accordingly people have to pick up information from a variety of sources; they move through the information space to gather all the information that is required. This is generally called `navigation'. Navigation is concerned with finding out about, and moving through, an environment. Of course there is a long history of designing for navigation in physical spaces. Architects, urban planners, geographers and others have studied navigation and learnt how to design physical spaces to help people find the place they are looking for, to enjoy exploration for its own sake, or to help find their way through a space to get somewhere else. The question arises as to whether we can leverage any of this knowledge for the design of...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2006
• Where: PSYCHNOLOGY
• Authors: David Benyon
• Keywords: Design, Information, Information Space, PSYCHNOLOGY 2006