 Preparing content for the web is a time-consuming task. To shorten the development time, it is important to follow certain guidelines for the preparation of web content. Starting with the overall information architecture of a website and single pages, this e-lecture discusses the main aspects associated with, as some publications call it, information architecture. That is, we will first of all talk about user-related aspects and then we will look at the organization of the content. Page layout and the central guidelines for the preparation of content as well as the appearance of text will be added in a second e-lecture entitled, Preparing Content Part 2. So let's start with information architecture. The term information architecture incorporates two major aspects, user behavior on the one hand and content structuring on the other. Whereas user behavior addresses the strategies and principles with which users navigate through the web, content structuring deals with various schemes of content organization depending on the nature of the content. This includes the principles of navigation and the use of support systems in order to avoid the lost in hyperspace effect. So let's look at user behavior first. In a simplified user behavior diagram, we can see the most likely way users follow when visiting a web page. When they visit a web page, they want to find out first whether this is the site they were looking for. Well, and if that's the case, they're done. However, in many cases, this is not the case. So if this does not apply, what happens next? Well, then they scan the links on the site. And if there are many links, then normally they click on the first good match. And if not, well, then they might take the best match. But in both cases, they visit a new web page and the whole cycle starts all over again. This process will sometimes take place within just a few seconds, depending on the content presented on a page. In summary, then, users will not spend too much time on a page if the page doesn't seem to contain what they're looking for. Also, they'll not waste time browsing through all the links on a page if there are many, but will click on the first good match. Since the time span between the first loading of a page and leaving a page is not long at all, well-organized page and site structures are of importance to guide users quickly to the information they're looking for. Such a well-organized structure is required for quick and frictionless navigation through a website. To keep the structure as logical and simple as possible one can, for example, choose a hierarchical structure similar to the structuring of content for scientific papers. We will come back to this issue in a second. For example, from a plain textual structure, we can easily create a hierarchical diagram. So this plain textual structure is something which you can derive straightforwardly from your, let's say, scientific publication. Well, the hierarchical structure then can easily be converted into a possible menu design for the web. And the menu design already utilizes elements assumed to be known by possible users such as arrows and buttons for the structuring of the items. This is only a suggestion. Certainly, there are other perhaps more individualized ways of organizing content which might be more suitable depending on the target group and the content. So let's look at the organization, the possible organizational structures of content in more detail. Depending on the users of a website and the structure of the content of a website is made of, there are several organization schemes more or less suitable for the goal one wants to achieve. Well, here is a selection of these schemes. A possible scheme is the linear scheme. This is good for processes, stories, and sometimes moving through ordered lists of similar items. But it can be time consuming, so linear sequences should be kept short. The hierarchical scheme by contrast is the most common and most well understood one. It allows relatively fast navigation from one page to another if it is organized in a logical way and it expands easily to support more information and more complex websites. The matrix scheme is sometimes appropriate for two-dimensional data such as maps, but it should not replace other ways to access the information such as search arrays or an index since it is tedious to get around. The full mesh scheme connects everything to everything, thus allowing rapid navigation, but it is only reasonable for small sites or a small section of a site since navigation can be endless and without orientation. Sometimes schemes can even be arbitrary. Such a scheme should be avoided though since it is likely to irritate users and a clear cut structure cannot be made out. This scheme is often used when there is no central authority who determines the organization of the content. The most common scheme, however, is the hybrid scheme. Well, most sites are to some degree a combination of these various schemes, especially when the organization of the content changes. Having introduced these various possibilities of organizing content, let us now turn our attention to the main principles of navigation. Now, once the content has been organized, creating navigation should be an easy task. However, there are few points to be taken into account when designing elements of navigation. For example, the elements used in the navigation process in the navigation application should be recognizable by the users. Links should be bold or underlined, well, you know this from the World Wide Web. Buttons should be distinguishable from the rest of the design, for example, by adding a drop shadow. Breadcrumbs, well, breadcrumbs are important in two ways. Users can easily return to more general levels of the site structure. Furthermore, breadcrumbs can be an element of orientation. An example for breadcrumbs is the menu line you can see over here. The menu line which is associated with one of our VLC classes. Here, the path the user has taken up to this point is shown with the additional possibility to return to previously visited pages. Furthermore, the user will be able to see how deep into the site structure he or she has already advanced. A disadvantage is the fact that similar levels of hierarchy are not reachable through this kind of navigation. This is why in many cases navigation is redundant. One type of navigation might not be enough to make information more reachable. Thus, alternative ways of navigation should be made available. Consider, for example, the menu of the virtual session on the VLC, which you always find on the left-hand side of a virtual session. Now, such a menu is always alternatively supported by the respective sitemap, which you can see here. Finally, after content organization and navigation, we have to think about support. Now, users might need support. Once they get lost on a website, frustration is likely to appear. To rescue users who got lost, three types of supporting pages can be introduced in the information architecture. First, we have so-called router pages. Now, router pages should be reached from the central pages. Examples are, for example, the whole page. That is the first website of your whole group of sites. The sitemap or the table of content or special indices, that is, lists of important terms. All these pages constitute so-called router pages, which should ideally be reachable from anywhere. Then we have so-called help pages. Help pages include pages such as frequently asked questions, references, glossaries, lists of abbreviations, customer support, or contact sites. And last but not least, we should take into account errors. So there must be pages that include hints for, let's say, missing pages so that the user knows what to do, messages concerning incorrect or incomplete input. Well, having discussed the central principles of content organization and navigation, let us stop here. In our e-lecture, preparing content part two, we will focus on the principles of page layout and the various techniques of developing text for the web. So see you again soon.