Semantics and Information Flows - how the structure of a web site effects the usability of your web site. How information logic has to be developed to lead the end user through the path to the material that they are seeking.
We touched on this in the Web Design Basics article when we discussed the requirements for a travel accommodation web site. That style of planning for the user experience is a huge aspect of the semantic and information flow aspect of a web site.
The more complex the web site the more difficult the information flow becomes. This information web site is a reasonably good exercise in this topic; all the main categories are available on the horizontal menu above; while the sub categories are available on the left. The basic category headings are clear and hopefully the subject segments below them follow some form of rational progression. We have tried to have meaningful headings that give a good hint as to what the topics are all about! Seems simple really; just a bit of time planning out the information flow. While this site has no real call to action - the example of information flow is fairly sound. If you want to contact us at any point there are links to our main company page at the foot of every page; the contact us in the main horizontal navigation bar as well as numerous references to our company name.
Now if you want to see some bad examples simply head off to almost every Government web site. You may not find their contact information like postal address, phone number or even a useable form. Better still if you phone them to find these details, their recorded message (while you are no doubt waiting on hold) will try and redirect you back to their web page!
Many corporate web sites are similar; absolutely no way of getting a name of a department manager, a phone number or a postal address. I often think that many Australian businesses simply don't want to have customers from the internet! Why have a web site in the first place; very strange indeed!