If you haven’t already done so, you might read Part One of this topic.
As we’ve seen, the pyramid site model might be a good place to start, but it breaks down pretty fast. Some other circumstances in which the traditional pyramid doesn’t work:
- Syndicated content: advanced Web content tools (such as this blog) can display content in different ways on different pages — perhaps on your Web site or perhaps in a news aggregator or other offsite context. Perhaps instead of calling this blog “WebBlather,” I should be naming it “Brian Wold Consulting Free Advice on Web Design and Usability” — not nearly as pithy, but I’d get my branding into syndication along with my ideas.
- Multiple Home Pages for key audiences: Some sites dynamically target their audiences, providing one Home Page for the general visitor, a different one for repeat visitors, yet others for suppliers, employees, etc. It’s not a bad idea for complex sites, and since you don’t want to duplicate your content, that means any given chunk of content might appear within different wrappers. To return to the metaphor, imagine several pyramids that overlap each other.
- Search engine snapshots: Sometimes I’ve been looking for a simple answer for something I forgot — say, the proper standard for a little piece of CSS formatting. If I find it in a Google search and the answer’s right there in the three-line page summary, I don’t bother to click through. Good for me, but bad for the site that I didn’t visit.
Some aspects of the simple pyramid are still valid, even in more-complex sites. For one, users tend to expect a Home Page > Sub Page > Detail Page model. And I have no evidence that users are at all confused by landing deep into a site (as long as their placement is clear, and the site is clearly branded). And even if you have three or four specialized Home Pages, they’ll still be the most-visited pages on your site — so clearly most people find the top of the pyramid.