Website architecture is an approach to the design and planning of websites which, like
architectureFor a topical guide to this subject, see Outline of architecture. Architecture is the art and science of designing and constructing buildings and other physical structures for human shelter or use....
itself, involves technical, aesthetic and functional criteria. As in traditional architecture, the focus is properly on the user and on user requirements. This requires particular attention to web content, a business plan, usability, interaction design, information architecture and web design. For effective
search engine optimizationSearch engine optimization is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via "natural" or un-paid search results as opposed to search engine marketing which deals with paid inclusion...
it is necessary to have an appreciation of how a single website relates to the
World Wide WebThe World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet. With a web browser, one can view Web pages that may contain text, images, videos, and other multimedia and navigate between them using hyperlinks...
.
Since web content planning, design and management come within the scope of
design methodsDesign Methods is a broad area that focuses on:* Divergence – Exploring possibilities and constraints of inherited situations by applying critical thinking through qualitative and quantitative research methods to create new understanding toward better design solutions* Transformation – Redefining...
, the traditional
vitruvianMarcus Vitruvius Pollio was a Roman writer, architect and engineer , active in the 1st century BC. By his own description Vitruvius served as a Ballista , the third class of arms in the military offices...
aims of commodity, firmness and delight can guide the architecture of websites, as they do physical architecture and other design disciplines.
Website architecture is an approach to the design and planning of websites which, like
architectureFor a topical guide to this subject, see Outline of architecture. Architecture is the art and science of designing and constructing buildings and other physical structures for human shelter or use....
itself, involves technical, aesthetic and functional criteria. As in traditional architecture, the focus is properly on the user and on user requirements. This requires particular attention to web content, a business plan, usability, interaction design, information architecture and web design. For effective
search engine optimizationSearch engine optimization is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via "natural" or un-paid search results as opposed to search engine marketing which deals with paid inclusion...
it is necessary to have an appreciation of how a single website relates to the
World Wide WebThe World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet. With a web browser, one can view Web pages that may contain text, images, videos, and other multimedia and navigate between them using hyperlinks...
.
Since web content planning, design and management come within the scope of
design methodsDesign Methods is a broad area that focuses on:* Divergence – Exploring possibilities and constraints of inherited situations by applying critical thinking through qualitative and quantitative research methods to create new understanding toward better design solutions* Transformation – Redefining...
, the traditional
vitruvianMarcus Vitruvius Pollio was a Roman writer, architect and engineer , active in the 1st century BC. By his own description Vitruvius served as a Ballista , the third class of arms in the military offices...
aims of commodity, firmness and delight can guide the architecture of websites, as they do physical architecture and other design disciplines. Website architecture is coming within the scope of
aestheticsAesthetics is commonly known as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste...
and
critical theoryCritical theory is the examination and critique of society and culture, drawing from knowledge across the social sciences and humanities. The term has two quite different meanings with different origins and histories, one originating in social theory and the other in literary criticism...
and this trend may accelerate with the advent of the
semantic webThe Semantic Web is an evolving development of the World Wide Web in which the meaning of information and services on the web is defined, making it possible for the web to understand and satisfy the requests of people and machines to use the web content...
and
web 2.0The term "Web 2.0" is commonly associated with web applications which facilitate interactive information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design and collaboration on the World Wide Web. Examples of Web 2.0 include web-based communities, hosted services, web applications, social-networking...
. Both ideas emphasise the structural aspects of information.
StructuralismStructuralism is an approach to the human sciences that attempts to analyze a specific field as a complex system of interrelated parts. It began in linguistics with the work of Ferdinand de Saussure...
is an approach to knowledge which has influenced a number of academic disciplines including aesthetics, critical theory and
postmodernismPostmodernism literally means 'after the modernist movement'. While "modern" itself refers to something "related to the present", the movement of modernism and the following reaction of postmodernism are defined by a set of perspectives...
. Web 2.0, because it involves
user-generated contentUser-generated content , also known as consumer-generated media or user-created content , refers to various kinds of media content, publicly available, that are produced by end-users....
, directs the website architect's attention to the structural aspects of information.
"Website architecture" has the potential to be a term used for the intellectual discipline of organizing website content. "Web design", by way of contrast, describes the practical tasks, part-graphic and part-technical, of designing and publishing a website. The distinction compares to that between the task of
editingEditing is the process of selecting and preparing language, images, sound, video, or film through processes of correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications in various media...
a newspaper or magazine and its
graphic designThe term graphic design can refer to a number of artistic and professional disciplines which focus on visual communication and presentation. Various methods are used to create and combine symbols, images and/or words to create a visual representation of ideas and messages. A graphic designer may...
and
printingPrinting is a process for reproducing text and image, typically with ink on paper using a printing press. It is often carried out as a large-scale industrial process, and is an essential part of publishing and transaction printing.-History:...
. But the link between editorial and production activities is much closer for web publications than for print publications.
Website design styles
see also: Website design styles
Over the short history of the web, various architectural and artistic styles have developed among different online language, national, social and cultural communities. Such differences in website design styles would set European websites apart from North American ones, Taiwanese websites from the ones originated in Mainland China (marked by the tendency to proliferate pop-up windows activated by left-click), Japanese (marked by employment of bright colors and flashing cute anime characters) from Korean (marked by gray text-white background, clean, "MacIntosh"-style interface). Especially innovative is a style originated in the Netherlands and other Dutch-speaking online communities, of the web interface heavily drawing on flash and postmodern visual arts at the expense of text and ordinary functionality.
See also
- Aesthetics
Aesthetics is commonly known as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste...
- Content management
Content management, or CM, is the set of processes and technologies that support the collection, managing, and publishing of information in any form or medium. In recent times this information is typically referred to as content or, to be precise, digital content...
- Critical theory
Critical theory is the examination and critique of society and culture, drawing from knowledge across the social sciences and humanities. The term has two quite different meanings with different origins and histories, one originating in social theory and the other in literary criticism...
- Design methods
Design Methods is a broad area that focuses on:* Divergence – Exploring possibilities and constraints of inherited situations by applying critical thinking through qualitative and quantitative research methods to create new understanding toward better design solutions* Transformation – Redefining...
- Information architecture
Information architecture is the art of expressing a model or concept of information used in activities that require explicit details of complex systems. Among these activities are library systems, Content Management Systems, web development, user interactions, database development, programming,...
- Interaction design
Interaction Design is the study of devices with which a user can interact, in particular computer users. The practice typically centers around "embedding information technology into the ambient social complexities of the physical world." It can also apply to other types of non-electronic products...
- Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via "natural" or un-paid search results as opposed to search engine marketing which deals with paid inclusion...
- Website
A website is a collection of related web pages, images, videos or other digital assets that are addressed with a common domain name or IP address in an Internet Protocol-based network...
- Web design
Web design is the skill of creating presentations of content that is delivered to an end-user through the World Wide Web, by way of a Web browser or other Web-enabled software like Internet television clients, microblogging clients and RSS readers.Web design is a kind of graphic design intended...
- World Wide Web
The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet. With a web browser, one can view Web pages that may contain text, images, videos, and other multimedia and navigate between them using hyperlinks...
External links