Webteam Information Architecture

TTC website information architecture principles

These principles provide guidelines for the built design and implementation of the TTC website in 2025.

• it must be possible to locate information by using several different strategies
• navigation should minimise the number of clicks required to reach information from the home page
• there should be no horizontal scrolling of pages
• vertical scrolling of pages should be minimised
• main menus must be explicit, i.e. no 'drop down' or 'hover over' menus. This is for accessibility, easy of use, and clarity of navigation
• show and hide feature may be used for less frequently used content and controls
• page size should be limited where possible to one portrait screen size (say 1920x1200). This is achieved by refactoring pages when they become too large.
• information density may be high due to the volume of information available
• it must be possible for all club members to edit and update the website content
• it must be possible to restrict access to website layout regions: header, footer, sidebar, and significant pages such as the home and administrative pages
• website must be secure
• website must be responsive to device screen size
• website must be accessible
• website should provide the same information on older browsers, but is not expected to provide the same look and feel
• website should work over rural and backcountry lower bandwidth connections

TTC website design

The main elements to the Information Architecture are:

• navigation
• search
• classification (organisation of items into categories, also known as tagging)
• labelling (the way you name your pages, categories, levels of navigation)
• page grouping

TTC website navigation

The main navigation elements are:

• the side bar, link to the main content areas of the website, the main sidebar is supplemented by group specific sidebars
• the header, providing a link to the home page, access to search, and controls
• the footer
• a site map, providing a curated tabulation of website content
• Search, full text search
• page trails?

Navigation is provided

• hyperlinks in text
• automatically generated clickable lists, also known as [PmWiki/PageLists | pagelists]]

TTC main side bar information grouping

The side bar groups information on the website as follows.

Club information group

Tramping information group

Activity information group

Environment information group

Current group pages

The current group may display pertinent pages in the side bar when it is the focus, e.g. fixture card, webteam, or in the hills.

Communications group

Additional pages group, hidden by default

A number of side bars supplement the home page sidebar:

Bushcraft  Conservation  Fixture Card  In The Hills  Links  Site  Tararua Footprints  Tararua Lodge  Tararua Tramper  Trip Information  Webteam 

TTC website layout regions

Site header

The site header contains the club logo site anchor which links to the home page, the club name, the page title, and to the top right search and page commands.

Site footer

The site footer contains page commands, links to about pages and site map, and page last modified information.

Group headers and footers

Group Headers and Group Footers provide additional navigational, informational elements, and common functionality for specific groups of pages, including page trails, group specific headers messages, and alerts. Groups with headers are: