Design Basics
Planning Your Website Redesign
Redesigning a website for your organization can be a daunting task, particularly if your content is out-of-date or disorganized.
In order to help streamline your process for a more successful project, Web Strategies has put together a "How-To" guide. This document can help step you through the process as well as inform you of the resources available and the decisions that need to be made.
This document is now available in our How-To Guides section.
Resources and Sample Documents
Content Matrix
A content matrix is a document that helps you organize the content that you will have on your Web site. Essentially just a table or spreadsheet, a content matrix shows the areas of content on each page of your site, arranged according to the navigation on the site.
Below is a blank template for you to use, as well as a copy of the one Web Strategies used for our website redesign so that you can see a real-life example.
Download Content Matrix Template
Web Strategies Site's Content Matrix
Information Architecture
Information Architecture (IA) is the conceptual design of your site. It consists of a site map (the organization of individual pages in a site, often viewed in "org chart" format) and wireframes which are like the blueprint for where specific pieces of information will be located on the page.
These documents is the roadmap to a successful Web site, providing a way to organize complex information.
The following document is in MS Visio.
Download Information Architecture Template
If you don't have Visio, you can also create a site map in Word; think of creating a "table of contents" for your site, where each line represents what word will appear in the left navigation. Email Us and we will send you Word templates to use for designing your homepage.
Examples of OHSU IA
