Step 4a: How Zoom Creates a Sitemap
Step 4a in a series that illustrates the Zoom Creates process in Designing, Developing and ultimately Launching a website for our client, J.R. Johnson Inc.
In Part Three we described what a sitemap is and what role it plays in planning the finished website. As explained in Part 3, the sitemap serves to organize all the information on a website in a way that makes site navigation easy and intuitive. Creating the sitemap is like creating a blueprint for the website. Designing the sitemap is often considered the most important step in creating a website because, as Corrina, Zoom’s Art Director points out, “Creating a sitemap forces you to conceive of the design and content in terms of the end product.”
To organize the sitemap for J.R. Johnson, we had to segment and arrange their business in a way that fits into a hierarchical sitemap layout. In most cases, we will take into account the established industry standard of organization that site visitors already know. With this standard organization in mind, we tailor it to the business. If there is no standard or the standard can be improved upon, we will start with that standard and rearrange it until it becomes most effective.
Site pages colored by relevance.
We began with the sitemap of J.R. Johnson Inc.’s previous website as a template. Unfortunately, one reason that J.R. Johnson Inc. needed a new website was that the organization of their previous website was unclear and overly complicated. In our office, we often hear Zachary, our Director of Digital Marketing, say, “This is a maze, it needs to be a hallway.”
To provide site visitors with a hallway to what they are looking for, we consulted with Alisa Gaylord, J.R. Johnson Inc.’s Director of Business Development and Client Services, and we re-categorized and prioritized pages from the previous website by visitor relevance.
Most relevant pages are most easily accessible.
We then brought those pages to the forefront of the website and made them easily accessible from the homepage and one click away from any page of the site. (Side Image)
The final version of the sitemap highlights the most important reasons to visit J.R. Johnson Inc.’s website: information on the services they offer, and how to contact the company for these services. The challenge of the next step in creating a website is to organize and prioritize information in the same way but this time for the visual layout of each page. This visual mock-up of each page is called wireframing. In the next post, we will describe how wireframing begins to plan out the site structure, page organization and overall user experience.
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See the rest of Zoom Creates’ Web Design Process Series for J.R. Johnson
NEXT STEPS:
Step 2: The Zoom Creates Website Design Process Series - The Discovery Meeting
Step 3: The Zoom Creates Website Design Process Series - Research
Step 4: The Zoom Creates Website Design Process Series - What is a Sitemap?
Step 4a: The Zoom Creates Website Design Process Series - How Zoom Creates a Sitemap
Step 5: The Zoom Creates Website Design Process Series - Wire Framing
Step 6: The Zoom Creates Website Design Process Series - Design Approach
Step 7: The Zoom Creates Website Design Process Series - Copy Writing
Step 8: The Zoom Creates Website Design Process Series - Breaking Points
Step 9: The Zoom Creates Website Design Process Series - Development
Step 10: The Zoom Creates Website Design Process Series - CMS
Step 11: The Zoom Creates Website Design Process Series - SEO
Step 12: The Zoom Creates Website Design Process Series - Testing
Step 13: The Zoom Creates Website Design Process Series - Analytics
Step 14: The Zoom Creates Website Design Series - Launch
It’s Wednesday and officially Hungry Hump Day in the office. Hungry Hump Day has been a long-standing tradition at Zoom. We celebrate each middle of the week morning most commonly with bagels and smear as well as the occasional doughnut bonanza. Our hump day treat accompanies our mid-week, all staff morning meeting and makes it a delightful way to start the day.
In the kitchen area here at Zoom HQ, we had under-cabinet lights which helped us see the food we prepared for lunch. There were nine 10 watt halogen puck lights. They had a few problems. First, they were always falling apart. Just bumping a light would make the innards fall down and dangle from the short wires. Second, the bulbs were very expensive, hard to find in stores, and only seemed to last for a few weeks before burning out. It was a rare occasion to have all the lights lit at the same time. Also, they were hot. Not fire-hazard hot, but hot enough to be uncomfortable if you get too close.
Rainbow Day was brainchild of the Tweedles, inspired by the Jimmy Dean Ad campaign and a line up of brightly colored shirts. The plan: everyone would sign up for a color and then could wear a top or dress of your chosen color for the day. (Note: your color had to appear solid from 3 feet away, no plaids allowed!) We brought in treats in a rainbow theme and we even caught a snapshot of the Zoomers in full rainbow attire, complete with Kurtis as the pot of gold! I don’t think you could get anymore bright and cheery then this colorful group!
Our geocache is now live. On the first day, six people found it and logged their find on 
If you haven’t heard of geocaching yet, you must be living under a rock. So crawl out of there, then look behind it because there might be a geocache hidden there. Then go to 
