What It Is

Organizing content based on your audience's needs is a best practice for managing your agency's website. Your primary form of navigation should be one of the following:

• by subject (topics, life events)


• by task or service


• by audience group


• by geographic location


• by any combination of these factors
  

Because navigation by organizational structure has traditionally been less effective for web users, you should use this as an alternative -- not primary -- form of navigation.

You should know your audiences and communicate with them regularly to analyze their wants and needs. Organize your content based on that feedback and other research.

Why It's Important

1. Usability tests and customer satisfaction reviews indicate that most web visitors--both citizens and other audience groups--are familiar with navigating websites by subject, audience, or location.


2. Focus groups and other feedback indicate that citizens do not know--nor do they want to know--how the government is organized to get the information and services they want. Creating navigation according to organizational structure is not the best way to design a website for citizens.


3. If a federal website is available to anyone, then citizens--as a whole--are part of the audience and the website must be organized in ways that help them use it.

Labels: Link Building

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