URL Design for Information Architects

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URL Design for Information Architects

Deanna Marbeck

Silver Oliver

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What we are going to tell you

• Why you should care about URLs

• How to design beautiful URLs

• When to think about URL design

• What deliverables come out of the design process

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What we are not going to tell you

• What are URLs

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Do you design URLs?

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Why do I care about URL design?

First 10 minutes of my working day

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www.hotmail.com

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http://icanhascheezburger.com/2008/08/27/funny-pictures-how-many-calorees/

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http://mikeschinkel.com/blog/welldesignedurlsarebeautiful/

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http://www.currybet.net/cbet_blog/2008/04/doctor_wh

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http://www.currybet.net/cbet_blog/2008/04/doctor_wh

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http://www.currybet.net/cbet_blog/2008/04/

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doctor_who_rss_url.php 17-Jun-2008 07:42

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/news/cult/news/drwho/2008/04/22/54453.shtml

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/news/cult/news/drwho/2008/04/22/54453.shtml

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What does this all mean?

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URLs are as important as the logos and navigation of a site

http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/

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What helps you design these URLs?

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The guiding principles

• Persistent• Readable• Hackable

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Which takes priority?

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Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

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Persistent

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Persistent

• Why?• Other sites link to you• Users bookmark you• Search engines find you

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/artists/070d193a-845c-479f-980e-bef15710653e

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Persistent

• Prince?• The Artist Formerly Known As Prince?• Symbol?• The Purple One?• Prince Rogers Nelson?

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Persistent

• Prince?• The Artist Formerly Known As Prince?• The Purple One?• Prince Rogers Nelson?


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“Designing mostly means leaving information out”

Sir Tim Berners-Lee said that

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What NOT to put in URLs

• Author’s name• Status• Subject• Filename extensions• Software mechanisms• Session ids

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http://open.bbc.co.uk/labs/innovation_labs_future_media_t.php

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Persistent

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Human Readable

• Why?• Don’t only appear in the address bar• Easy to understand• Easy to remember• More meaningful• Arguably some SEO benefit

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www.bbc.co.uk/topics/dogs

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Human Readable

• rubbishandrecycling?• rubbish-and-recycling?• rubbish_and_recycling?• special characters

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~

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Human Readable

• rubbishandrecycling?• rubbish-and-recycling?• rubbish_and_recycling?• special characters• length

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Persistent

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Hackable

• Why?• Represents the logical structure of your site• Provides extra information – orientation within the site• Lets people move to higher levels of your site• Lets people guess the address for a similar resource

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/programmes/schedules/2008/08/04

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Hackable



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Hackable



http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/programmes

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Hackable




http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour

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Hackable

• Consistent use of labels• Similar resources should sit at the same level• Provide a meaningful page for every level of your hierarchy

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The guiding principles

• Persistent• Readable• Hackable

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It’s a balancing act

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Persistent

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The design process and deliverables

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Why do I care?

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Michael Smethurst

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aka My Boss

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Traditional IA

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bbc.co.uk/programmes

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Elegant, extensible, logical

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“What URL is that at?”

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http://flickr.com/photos/hurleygurley/4338767/

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When?

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At the beginning of the design process

• Understand user requirements• Understand business requirements• Understand your data – domain model

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/beta

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Music Domain Model

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Design your URLs

• Make your schema• Understand the relationships between your data• Design your URLs from the bottom up• One URL for every resource

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Music Domain Model

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/artists/070d193a-845c-479f-980e-bef15710653e/releases/singles

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/artists/070d193a-845c-479f-980e-bef15710653e/releases

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/artists

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/artists/070d193a-845c-479f-980e-bef15710653e.xml

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Music URLs

• /music/artists/:artist/releases/:releasetype• /music/artists/:artist/releases• /music/artists/:artist• /music/artists• /music

• /music/about• /music/developers• /music/contactus

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More music URLs

• /music/labels• /music/labels/:label• /music/labels/:label/releases• /music/labels/:label/releases/:type• /music/labels/:label/artists• /music/releases• /music/releases/:release• /music/releases/:release/tracks• /music/releases/:release/events• /music/releases/:release/contributors• /music/releases/:release/links

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Now you have a site structure

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Job done!

http://flickr.com/photos/neloqua/243001463/

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Deliverables

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Communication

• Walls of URLs • Lists of pages• Wireframes• Designs• Prototypes

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URLs on postits

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Walls of URLs

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URL syntax

• :artist• {service}

• /music/artists/:artist• /{service}/programmes

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Involve your team

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Spreadsheets

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/suneko/373318607/

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Sitemaps

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Schematic

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Designs

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Prototype - http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/artists

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/purrr/126597849/

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Job done!

http://flickr.com/photos/neloqua/243001463/

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Summary

• URLs are part of the user experience• Information Architects should be involved in the design of URLs • Create beautiful URLs and beautiful site structures

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thank/you

[email protected]@bbc.co.uk

Entertainment & Humor

URL Design for Information Architects