visio site map

toms site map

Tom added

"Adam and Anthony’s site maps both work correctly and include benefits such as all the pages being linked together, but I feel that they look messy, which means that it is hard to distinguish what is happening on them. I have tried to make my design clearer and flow well which I believe is very important when trying to justify how a website should run."

anthonys site

my sitemap

One similarity between each of our site maps is that they give the user the ability to access every page from the index page. This is a vital aspect to consider when creating a website as it is very important to make sure that the user can always access the page that they are looking for as soon as they enter the website.

Another similarity that every member of the group has tried to achieve is the 3 click rule. This means that the consumer will be able to find what they are searching for on the site within a maximum of three clicks. This ensures efficiency and makes a website look and feel more professional.

By taking all the best aspects from each of our designs we have decided on a final site map which ensures that all the pages are connected together whilst being clear and distinguishable.

smart art site maps

toms site map

I think toms smartart sitemap is very Organised and understandable. I like how he laid out the sitemap and in my opinion the best one in the group. However it might be organised but not all the pages link together which makes it hard for a user to go to my accounts page from the homepage. To do this they would have to go from homepage to registration page then to login page and finally my accounts page.

anthonys site map

Anthonys smartart sitemap could have been better especially when linking the pages together and many of the pages we discussed in meeting that were going to link to other pages aren’t linked. I good point I can see in his sitemap is that I can understand it and it and complicated and I can also see he understood how to use the tools on work smartart correctly.

my site map



One of the disadvantages of my smart art sitemap is that it can get a bit messy and confusing. My word processed site map looked so confusing and I think if someone else was to look at it they wouldn’t know where to start. I could have used different colour to make it stand out and also change the font size and box sizes.

However the good and the main advantage on my sitemap is that it links to every page we discussed in the group meeting. If you follow the lines carefully you will see that they all join to the pages and the homepage also links with all the pages on the sitemap.

wireframes

paint

I used paint as one of my program tools used to design my wireframes. Paint is very simple and easy to use. However can be very irritating because after clicking away from the shape or tool you are using you can’t go back the change the shape, and the only way is to undo and start again.

Paint is very good for the detailed designs are you can use the rubber to erase little things and won’t need the delete the whole thing. Unlike mockingbird which don’t have a rubber tool.

Shape tools on paint are really good just like on mockingbird. However on paint you can draw the shape straight away where you want. But on mockingbird you have to drag the shape out then adjust it to the shape you like and prefer, which in my opinion might take a longer process.

mockingbird


I used this program because it makes the tool more easy to use and also help to create and to link together, this save time and keeps the project in such an order, also mockingbird keep the planning fast and efficient. This program satisfies the customer because it communicates with a good way where clients can see it clear. This bring new ideas to mockingbird and is a rapidly to set and to design new things. The good thing about mockingbird is that is made with the tool that I can use for the wireframes and designing the website templates. And also I can open many pages as I want and it will still be linked together and I can arrange them easy and there is nothing to install. I can access from where ever I am, so this make more easy and faster to use and understand more details. 



reference
https://gomockingbird.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paint

visio and smartart

Smart art and Visio

I used smart art as one of the tools to design the site map to create the website. Smart art makes it very easy to create business diagrams that display information in an easy and understanding format. I could easily grab a box and put it in the diagram showing the user how and where the pages linked together.

One of the disadvantages of smart art is that it can get a bit messy and confusing. My word processed site map looked so confusing and I think if someone else was to look at it they wouldn’t know where to start. I could have used different colour to make it stand out and also change the font size and box sizes. Unlike my site map on Visio which is clearly visible to everyone and easily understandable.

Smart art has many different layouts such as charts to step by step processes, I used the hierarchy layout because it was going to show how each page on the website linked together.  If you don’t know how to one of the layouts there are step by step in a sequential process to provide help to the users. The hierarchy group contains organisation charts and table hierarchies. You don’t have to use the shape selected and can change it if you want. This is a good advantage as I could change the layout later without losing any of my work.

To create a smart art diagram you simply have to first open Word 2007, Excel 2007, PowerPoint 2007 and Outlook 2007, then click the insert tab and select smart art icon in the illustration group. When you choice which of the following smart art graphic you wish to use. And in this case it’s the hierarchy diagram.

I also used Visio to design my website sitemap. Visio is a great program for making flow charts, sitemaps, websites or wireframes for software programs.  This program was very easy to design the boxes and connecting the lines to the boxes was much easier than on smart art. When linking the boxes makes it very easy to move the box and also the lines as the will be connected together. It’s much faster to draw diagrams in Visio than in word smart art. 

I think if I was to draw my final site map it will be on Visio and I might also you Visio for my wireframes.

On the other hand smart art can be better presented as you can add nice shadowing and effects such as 3D shapes. On smart art you can also had colour which makes it stand out and the user can tell the different between hierarchies or the matrix site maps.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/create-a-smartart-graphic-HA001205867.aspx

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Visio

site map

design a website - site maps

navigation

  

I have designed the hierarchy table of the pages I will be designing the website in unit 21.

This hierarchy shows me that all pages (checkout page, terms of conditions, offers page and FAQ) are linked to the homepage, so that when the user is on the homepage they should be able to navigate to any of the pages.