If the Internet is an ocean, is a web site a boat or a net? Instead of a rigid, self-contained vessel, think of a skein of many layers, plunging down through shifting currents. The fish you want to catch will swim through some layers, wrap themselves up in others. The path they take is unpredictable. The flexibility and responsiveness of your net will determine if they find the content you are trying to offer them.

Once you have a mission for a site, have identified source material and have a development team in place, the task of turning original text, graphics and concepts into an effective information design follows a three-part model:

1. Chunking
2. Branding
3. Navigation.

Making Information Small

People browse the web for quick hits of information. Whether they are looking for interesting facts or an interesting experience, they expect to find it quickly.

The only way to make this happen is by chunking. Chunking means fragmenting information into small easily read or experienced topics. Visitors need the navigational tools to skip items that bore them and locate the items they want. At the same time, they need to find out about related topics that enrich their visit, extend their stay and give them reason to return.

Even the most interrelated content can be chunked. Think of an outline, a flowchart, a storyboard, even a map. These organizational devices all break information into smaller units. The difference between them is the way the information is related. An outline organizes information by topic and subtopic; a flowchart by cause and effect; a storyboard by development of themes; a map by proximity and route.

The organizational device you use will help you create the right navigational system for your information. It will also lead to your most essential structural decision: Horizontal or vertical?

Horizontal or Vertical?

In a horizontal structure, every item of information is of equal importance. A product catalog, an encyclopedia, a phonebook are all horizontal structures. On the Internet, horizontal sites such as Amazon.com and the Thomas Register use a search engine to direct visitors very quickly to a single chunk of information: A book. A company. Vertical structures organize interrelated information. When topics and subtopics can be grouped, when one item references another, when the information items have a cumulative effect, a vertical structure may be appropriate.

For example, a site like ESPN allows you to collect information in a vertical chain of increasing specificity. Browse the home page to see last night's NBA scores. Browse the NBA section to see an interesting headline. Look at the Knicks game. Read a quote by Patrick Ewing. Check out Patrick Ewing's career stats.

Most sites use hybrid structures. Amazon.com has an effective search engine; it also allows you to browse by interest. At ESPN you can skip past the headlines and get a profile of any NBA player. A site map offers another way for experienced users to skip through a vertical structure and locate the information they want. At the Division of the Budget, we tracked a certain small set of visitors who, once they found the site map, used it repeatedly.

Chronology represents another hybrid structure in which all dates are equal but recent dates are more equal than others. Salon Magazine's archive section, for example, allows you to view articles by subject or date.

Whatever structure you use, chunking makes manipulating the information possible.

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