Decide site information architecture

maybe this will help the discussion. it is the discussion we had within the London group

This looks great. I think one area that could potentially be improved / simplified is “Attend” / “Logistics”. I wonder if that could be separated into two navigation elements: “Venue” and “Register”. Under “Venue”, it seems likely that one would expect to find information about travel, accommodations, nearby attractions, and other “Place-specific” information. “Register” seems both distinct and important enough to warrant its own space in primary navigation.

I may be making too many assumptions about users’ expectations around “Venue”, though… thoughts?

Also, I think we may want to create distinction between what is navigation and what is content in the next iteration of the sitemap. For example, I wouldn’t expect “News” to be sub-nav under “Home”... I would expect that to be content on the home page.

Also, I think we may want to create distinction between what is navigation and what is content in the next iteration of the sitemap. For example, I wouldn’t expect “News” to be sub-nav under “Home”... I would expect that to be content on the home page.

And what if you're not on the homepage, and want to get news? Is the "news" page only the homepage?

Below is a possible list, based on Ben’s initial post, but omitting sub-nav for each navigation element:

PRIMARY NAVIGATION

Home
Program
Speakers
Venue
Community
Sponsors
Register

SECONDARY NAVIGATION

News
About
Contact
Press

Questions:

1. Do we want global navigation for contact information, as suggested by the “Contact” link under Secondary Navigation?
2. Does “Press” make sense, as both a space for pointing to press mentions and providing information to members of the Press for media inquiries?
3. Does anyone think "Program" could me more specific? Perhaps "Schedule" is clearer? Just a thought... I don't feel very strongly about it, but thought it worth asking.
4. And again, does the label “Venue” adequately cover both specific Venue information as well as broader regional information, like travel and nearby attractions?

Attention getting device:
I think changing things just because we can doesn't make sense. People who are used to attending these events are used to finding certain information in certain locations. If it makes sense to change something because it didn't work well before or because something else works better, then okay, but not just because.

Stinky opinions:

Do we want global navigation for contact information, as suggested by the “Contact” link under Secondary Navigation?

IMO, yes. Don't make important things hard to find.

Does “Press” make sense, as both a space for pointing to press mentions and providing information to members of the Press for media inquiries?

I think so, and according to London site (which is the only one to have it), they think so, too.

Does anyone think "Program" could me more specific? Perhaps "Schedule" is clearer? Just a thought... I don't feel very strongly about it, but thought it worth asking.

Although "Program" was used for the Copenhagen site, "Conference" was used for the other three sites of the last four conferences. Personally, "Schedule" and "Sessions" are what I look for when I want that information, but the other terms may convey the information better. "Conference" is more broad and encompassing, while "Program" and "Schedule" have more specific meanings. (BTW, I totally missed the large "Conference" labels while looking for "Schedule".)

And again, does the label “Venue” adequately cover both specific Venue information as well as broader regional information, like travel and nearby attractions?

I do not believe "Venue" adequately covers everything, but if I didn't see words like "Travel", "Accommodations", etc., "Venue" is where I would go, so if they are not going to be broken out, they should be clear sub-sections or areas on the "Venues" area. The Copenhagen and San Francisco sites used "Logistics", while the London and Chicago sites split the information between "Conference" and "London"/"Chicago". While I like the idea of a "Denver" label, I think "Logistics" works better.

In other news:
Regarding news on the front page, while I will concede that some news items are appropriate there, I do not believe that should be the only content or the main content. The front page's purpose should to sell the conference and/or encourage people to dig deeper and get more information about the conference. The river of news should be on a separate page with only the top one or two items occupying only a small part of the front page.

Keeping on track:
Regarding the various session tracks, there are a core 5ish tracks (sometimes one is dropped or two are combined) and usually 1 or 2 that are different for each Drupalcon. I did some research into this for our Las Vegas DUG meetings a couple of months ago. If anyone's interested, I can look for it and post it, but my conclusion can be found here: http://groups.drupal.org/node/150219.

Closing thoughts:
I guess, in a nutshell, what I'm saying is don't reinvent the wheel. Change what makes sense and leave the rest alone. We don't want people feeling frustrated when they use the site.

For reference:
http://london2011.drupal.org/
http://chicago2011.drupal.org/
http://cph2010.drupal.org/
http://sf2010.drupal.org/

@lisarex: My only concern with "Logistics" is that it doesn't have the same "destination" connotations as venue. It might not matter at all... this is something that would be great to test, though. In general, do you agree with the idea of separating that content from "Register"?

Hi everyone,

The following list represents content to be included on the home page for the DrupalCon Denver website. Items are listed in order of priority, with highest priority given to item 1, second highest to item 2, etc. This list will be used as a guide in the design process for creating an effective layout and design system. Once we have all of the elements and hierarchy established we can jump right into designing the page. So please take a look and let me know if anything is missing or should be higher priority.

Note: Things like logo, search, and navigation are assumed and will not be listed in the content map.

Home

Rotating Feature - This area will feature speakers, training, events, etc

1. Headline
2. Content
3. Image

Latest News - This section will pull the latest content from the News section of the site

1. Headline
2. Content
3. Date
4. Tags
5. Comments
6. Read More

Important Dates/Times - An area to highlight upcoming or important dates - session submission deadlines, ticket price changes, event details

1. Date
2. Event

Audience-specific Content Feature - This section will guide users who might be new to Drupal or DrupalCons. It may feature multiple tracks that could help users learn what to expect or which sessions they may want to attend. Some example audiences could be Business, New to Drupal, Designers, etc.

1. Audience Illustration
2. Title
3. Intro
4. Learn More

Sponsors

1. Sponsor Level
2. Logo

Join our Mailing List - Mailing List sign-up form

Attendees - A random list of attendee photos

Twitter feed - Recent tweets from @drupalcon or with the drupalcon denver hash tag - Might be universal throughout the site

After a brief discussion with Lisa Rex this morning, we are moving ahead with the structure from #4. Marking as fixed for now; we can reopen if need be during the feedback cycle after initial designs are produced.

Just a note that we could continue this thread (or just start a new one) for possible plans for adaptive IA. Adapting the IA as our timeline continues and we pass significant markers, like session submission, etc. There is great overlap here with general "onboarding", and we should consider the use of the forthcoming Onboarding API: http://drupal.org/sandbox/tcarmona/1120194

But, this can all pick up after initial launch.