URL Design for Information Architects

URL Design for Information Architects Deanna Marbeck Silver Oliver

What we are going to tell you
Why you should care about URLs
How to design beautiful URLs
When to think about URL design
What deliverables come out of the design process

What we are not going to tell you
What are URLs

Do you design URLs?

Why do I care about URL design?
First 10 minutes of my working day

www.hotmail.com

http://icanhascheezburger.com/2008/08/27/funny-pictures-how-many-calorees/

http:// mikeschinkel.com/blog/welldesignedurlsarebeautiful /

http://www.currybet.net/cbet_blog/2008/04/doctor_wh

http://www.currybet.net/cbet_blog/2008/04/

doctor_who_rss_url.php 17-Jun-2008 07:42

http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/news/cult/news/drwho/2008/04/22/54453.shtml

What does this all mean?

URLs are as important as the logos and navigation of a site http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/

What helps you design these URLs?

The guiding principles
Persistent
Readable
Hackable

Which takes priority?

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs Persistent

Persistent
Why?
Other sites link to you
Users bookmark you
Search engines find you

http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/artists/070d193a-845c-479f-980e-bef15710653e

Persistent
Prince?
The Artist Formerly Known As Prince?
Symbol?
The Purple One?
Prince Rogers Nelson?

Persistent
Prince?
The Artist Formerly Known As Prince?
The Purple One?
Prince Rogers Nelson?

“ Designing mostly means leaving information out” Sir Tim Berners-Lee said that

What NOT to put in URLs
Author’s name
Status
Subject
Filename extensions
Software mechanisms
Session ids

http://open.bbc.co.uk/labs/innovation_labs_future_media_t.php

Human Readable
Why?
Don’t only appear in the address bar
Easy to understand
Easy to remember
More meaningful
Arguably some SEO benefit

www.bbc.co.uk/topics/dogs

Human Readable
rubbishandrecycling?
rubbish-and-recycling?
rubbish_and_recycling?
special characters

Human Readable
rubbishandrecycling?
rubbish-and-recycling?
rubbish_and_recycling?
special characters
length

Hackable
Why?
Represents the logical structure of your site
Provides extra information – orientation within the site
Lets people move to higher levels of your site
Lets people guess the address for a similar resource

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/programmes/schedules/2008/08/04

Hackable

Hackable
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/programmes

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/programmes

Hackable
http:// www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/programmes
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour

Hackable
Consistent use of labels
Similar resources should sit at the same level
Provide a meaningful page for every level of your hierarchy

The guiding principles
Persistent
Readable
Hackable

It’s a balancing act

The design process and deliverables

Why do I care?

Michael Smethurst

aka My Boss

Traditional IA

bbc.co.uk/programmes

Elegant, extensible, logical

“ What URL is that at?”

http://flickr.com/photos/hurleygurley/4338767/

At the beginning of the design process
Understand user requirements
Understand business requirements
Understand your data – domain model

http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/beta

Music Domain Model

Design your URLs
Make your schema
Understand the relationships between your data
Design your URLs from the bottom up
One URL for every resource

Music Domain Model

http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/artists/070d193a-845c-479f-980e-bef15710653e/releases/singles

http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/artists/070d193a-845c-479f-980e-bef15710653e/releases

http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/artists

http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/artists/070d193a-845c-479f-980e-bef15710653e.xml

Music URLs
/music/artists/:artist/releases/:releasetype
/music/artists/:artist/releases
/music/artists/:artist
/music/artists
/music
/music/about
/music/developers
/music/contactus

More music URLs
/music/labels
/music/labels/:label
/music/labels/:label/releases
/music/labels/:label/releases/:type
/music/labels/:label/artists
/music/releases
/music/releases/:release
/music/releases/:release/tracks
/music/releases/:release/events
/music/releases/:release/contributors
/music/releases/:release/links

Now you have a site structure

Job done! http://flickr.com/photos/neloqua/243001463/

Deliverables

Communication
Walls of URLs
Lists of pages
Wireframes
Designs
Prototypes

URLs on postits

Walls of URLs

URL syntax
:artist
{service}
/music/artists/:artist
/{service}/programmes

Involve your team

Spreadsheets

http://www.flickr.com/photos/suneko/373318607/

Sitemaps

Schematic

Designs

Prototype - http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/artists

http://www.flickr.com/photos/purrr/126597849/

Job done! http://flickr.com/photos/neloqua/243001463/

Summary
URLs are part of the user experience
Information Architects should be involved in the design of URLs
Create beautiful URLs and beautiful site structures

thank/you [email_address] [email_address]

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URL Design for Information Architects

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