www.north-square.com
+44 (0) 845 47 48 456 info@north-square.com
North Square completes its evaluation of the new Allerdale Council website. North Square has worked for 26 councils in the UK.
View major clients, testimonials, and request references in our Client Portfolio.
(January 2008)
18 July 2006
Before we discuss what makes a good A-Z site index, let us first consider which websites should think about introducing one:
Site indexes are not used as widely as site maps but they are highly recommended because they are organised by content, and not by the limitations of navigational grouping.
In our Website Evaluation Audits we evaluate site indexes thoroughly. Some of the criteria we apply is discussed in this section:
The site index should not be part of primary navigation; it should be listed with other help systems. We normally recommend placing help systems in the upper right portion of the page. This advice is inline with Graphical User Interface convention (GUI Convention) which places help in the top right corner of the page.
The label used should ideally read "Site Index" or "A-Z Site Index".
Site Indexes should contain all the common names that users might use to describe a page's content. For example, Royal Mail should have the following links in their site index, all pointing to the Postal Prices page e.g. "Postage prices", "Stamp prices", "Prices (for postage)", "1st class postage prices", "First class postage prices".
Developers must think carefully about the design of the site index given the amount of content. There must also be sufficient scope for the site index to grow as the website grows. For example, is it better to place all the links on 1 page, or use 1 page for each of the characters in the alphabet?
We normally recommend that the alphabet is broken into clusters of links at the top of the page e.g. A-E, F-I, J-R, S-Z. The clusters should be chosen so that a similar number of links are in each cluster, not so that each cluster contains the same number of letters. Make sure that the links at the top of the page are clearly identifiable as links (underline and a colour change from non-link text is the ideal approach).
Multiple-page site indexes normally display the whole alphabet in a box, consistently positioned on every page. On many site indexes, not all letters of the alphabet will contain links, so again, it is essential that users can easily identify active and non active letters. Site indexes that contain many letters with non-active links (10 or more), may be better re-organised as a 1-page site index.
We recommend that all links associated with the first letter of the alphabet are displayed upon the site index being clicked for the first time.
Site index listings to content other than HTML should be identified (e.g. PDF, Word documents) along with file sizes.
We highly recommend that all links in the site index and organised in bulleted lists. This helps blind visitors using screen readers to understand when each link starts and ends.
The site index must be housed in the standard page framework so that it contains all navigation bars.
by David Miller
Website Analyst,
North Square Interactive
North Square Interactive is an online consultancy that delivers cost effective, best practice, Website Evaluation reports, Usability Testing, Website Competitor Analysis, Accessibility Audits, Browser Testing, and more. For further information about all of our services, please visit our Online Consultancy Index.
Home
Resources
Request Demo
Contact Us Online