In part 1 we discussed a rudimentary appraisal of your website’s information architecture so you could gauge whether it met some basic commercial requirements. In this part we will discuss issues relating to navigation and website structure.

What is so important about navigation and structure?

How do I get around?

Navigation - determines how easily people can find things and retrieve data from the website - a vital component of successful task completion activities that drives bottom line. Taking a user perspective - when they hit a page, will they

Integrating online and offline marketing campaigns and providing a successful multi-channel user experience is a powerful way to increase profitability and customer loyalty.

It therefore should be a priority to ensure that all your channels work together, mutually supporting each other with your brand and offering messages, and that these channels provide a seamless path for your users through to an acquisition…

In April 2009, YouTube started to blog about the beta changes that they were making to the YouTube channels – inventively dubbed “YouTube Channels 2.0″.

The new editor has some distinct advantages over the old editor and provides a much improved interface for the creation and maintenance of your channel…

Why do you need to optimise your website’s information architecture? A simple question that requires some serious thought; this is because IA (information architecture) has a big influence your website’s commercial success or failure because it is at the heart of the user experience (UX).

Who designed your IA?

How does IA design go wrong? The seriousness of some decisions made about IA are often not understood by those making the decisions.

In our experience, whilst many decision makers get many of the issues relating to IA, through common sense, commercial acumen, training and/or an autodidactic interest, they rarely know or appreciate all of the issues.

The factors from whence these issue can derive are generally…

While most designers aren’t literally asked to “make things look pretty” the general perception is that visual design is a finishing touch.

Most websites are highly functional, even those that are purely visual, there will always be functional element beyond that of a book, magazine or brochure. While turning pages is familiar to everyone, navigating a website is not always so straightforward.

In December 2008, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) published version 2.0 of their Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), the first major revision since 1999. These guidelines define how to produce Web content that is accessible to people with disabilities, including visual, auditory and physical, as-well as people with changing abilities due to ageing.

Version 2.0 of the W3C WCAG document is not too dissimilar from previous versions, but is far more comprehensive and includes more detail and explanation of how to tackle potential accessibility issues.

The HTML Title Tag is an important element within your on-page search engine optimisation programme; it has three significant roles:-

1. It lets humans know what the page is about
2. It displays in the search engine results pages (SERP) and affects click-through-rates (CTR)
3. It influences the on-page parts of the search engines’ relevancy algorithms.

The word ‘commercialism’ has somehow morphed in the public consciousness into a dirty word - to be associated with exploitation, cynicism and sharp practice. When commentators now speak of commercialism it is always insidious, creeping surreptitiously into some market to darken its doorstep; It’s ‘The Man’ stepping on the little people.

Commercialism in its original meaning simply meant:-

1. The practices, methods, aims, and spirit of commerce or business
2. An attitude that emphasizes tangible profit or success.

In general web professionals don’t talk too often about commercialism; whether this is consciously because many in the community advocate open and free transfer of information, or a