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_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

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

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/

When?

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]

URL Design for Information Architects

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