The playbook
Website Architecture: Worked Examples
The following website architecture examples illustrate how to move from an observed problem to a practical decision. They are hypothetical operating scenarios, not customer results or performance benchmarks. The central question is whether the work helps improve successful navigation tasks without losing the context needed to judge it.
Put the task in context
Group pages around recognizable tasks such as services, pricing, projects, and contact. Test whether a first-time visitor can find the relevant service from both the homepage and an article. A visitor entering through search may never see the homepage.
Example 1: establish a usable starting point
A team begins working on website architecture but cannot consistently describe page and parent for the same item. The immediate task is group content around audience tasks. The team records the current state, identifies the source of each value, and resolves conflicting information before making a broader change.
The useful output is a page or interaction record that another person can interpret. This example does not require assuming an uplift. Success at this stage means the next decision can be made using a shared set of facts, with missing information explicitly identified.
Example 2: correct a specific failure
In a second situation, the team observes structuring navigation around internal departments customers do not know. It proposes the correction: rename categories around the visitor's needs. Before applying that correction everywhere, the owner checks whether the same cause is present in other affected items. A common symptom alone does not prove that all items need the same repair.
| Decision | Illustrative reasoning |
|---|---|
| Observation | Structuring navigation around internal departments customers do not know |
| Likely correction | Rename categories around the visitor's needs |
| Verification task | Choose category labels people recognize |
| Result to inspect | Test paths to important pages from common entry points |
After the change, the owner repeats the relevant task and records what happened. If the condition remains, the team returns to the evidence rather than declaring the process complete. The example illustrates a repair cycle; it does not claim a particular commercial result.
Example 3: extend a process after it works
A third team already has reliable records for a small scope and wants to expand. It compares the next group with the first: are page, parent, audience task defined in the same way, and does the intended outcome remain successful navigation tasks? Differences are written down before the earlier process is reused.
Expansion is appropriate when the assumptions still hold and an owner can review exceptions. Where the new group has different needs, the team adapts the process and tests again. Reusing the structure is useful; reusing a conclusion without checking its conditions is much less reliable.
Apply the examples to your own work
- Write the current problem in observable terms using page.
- Choose which of the three examples matches the stage of the work.
- Complete this action first: group content around audience tasks.
- Keep the resulting evidence and review successful navigation tasks on a consistent basis.
Verify the actual visitor journey on a narrow screen and with a keyboard. A design can look complete while hiding an unreachable control or a missing confirmation. Record the task attempted and what happened at the end.
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