The hierarchical model
Hierarchical navigational models emerge from top-down designs. These start with one key concept that
becomes your home page. From the home page, users branch off to several main pages; if needed, these
main pages can, in turn, branch off into many separate pages. Everything flows from the home page; it??™s
very much like a company??™s organizational chart, with the CEO on top followed by the various company
divisions.
The hierarchical Web site, shown in Figure 5-2, is best known for maintaining a visitor??™s sense of place in
the site. Some Web designers even depict the treelike structure as a navigation device and include each
branch traveled as a link. This enables visitors to quickly retrace their steps, branch by branch, to investigate
different routes.
FIGURE 5-2
A hierarchical Web layout enables the main topics to branch into their own subtopics.
The spoke-and-hub model
Given the Web??™s flexible hyperlink structure, the spoke-and-hub navigational model works extremely well.
The hub is, naturally, the site??™s home page. The spokes projecting from the center connect to all the major
pages in the site. This layout permits quick access to any key page in just two jumps??”one jump always
leading back to the hub/home page and one jump leading in a new direction.
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