Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Web Portfolio Information Organization
Organizing information that we put into the Web portfolio gets done on several
levels. We completed one of those levels when we conceptualized and created
the scope documents. Using the scope documents as a basis for further
refinement of the Web portfolio content information, we now must add
structure and organization to the accumulated information. The structure and
organization in the next steps will be more rigid than the loosely developed
concept and content documents created in the previous chapter. In the next
phase of Web portfolio development, the technical aspects will require you to
organize the content into a visual diagram. You have done much of the technical
work of organizing information by creating a content outline; now you will refine
the content outline into a flowchart. Before you do that, let us talk a little bit
about how the flowchart as a metaphor for a skeleton. The skeleton is a frame.
The flowchart is the frame of the Web portfolio site.
Flowcharts as Skeletons
Hierarchical presentation and organization of information are the most impor-
tant aspects of Web portfolio and all Web design structure. To develop
information in organized, hierarchal form we must build a skeleton for the Web
portfolio. The flowchart is the skeleton. Just as a programmer uses pseudo-
code, a filmmaker writes a storyboard and shot list, and a painter makes a rough
paper sketch, we too as Web portfolio authors, must map out our project.
Information design provides a data structure that is crucial to Web develop-
ment. Navigation, usability and organization are connected components in
creating a successful Web portfolio site structure.
The creation of the flowchart is based on the content outline. However, this is
the time when you can evaluate the relationships between the navigation and
sub-navigation to determine if the best choice of structure and organization are
being used for the site. Remember the process we went through. We listed
categories of content. Under these categories were listed subcategories of the
types of assets that would reside to represent these categories. When organiz-
ing information, you will need to try some different arrangements to see how
things fit under categories. As I mentioned earlier in this text, this process of
