[Sigia-l] Redundant information and content

[Peter Merholz]

Two thoughts:

1. The whole point of the Web is that it's hyperlinked. That it's not a
physical information store. Which means that associations ought to be made
when they're relevant.

2. Okay, so we can have all the paths we want, but where does the content
*live*? There's been talk that on a Web site, content has a "buddha place" -
a one true home.  

I was an avowed disciple of this view for a long time. I felt that content
needed to be anchored somewhere, so that people could orient around it, find
it again, etc. 

But the more I toyed with faceted classification, the more I realize that
buddha place isn't suitable for all kinds of content, particularly large
information stores.

Content often shouldn't be considered to have a "place" but simply a set of
attributes that help people locate it.

(I make no claim that this is original thinking -- library card catalogs
were dealing with this long long ago, even though the books themselves had a
unique location.)

However, even for smaller content stores, I've thought that faceted is the
way to go. Let's say you're a financial services site, and of the 40 product
types you have, there are car loans. Should such a thing be found under
"car" or "loans"? Why not both? Why not let some people find things by "car"
and others by "loans"?

--peter

On 7/14/03 10:52 AM, "Thomas.Donehower at eurorscg.com"
<Thomas.Donehower at eurorscg.com> wrote:

> Quick question: Content is not always mutually exclusive. In defining a
> navigation structure, is it  (A) better to keep content mutually exclusive
> to one area so as not to cause confusion or is it  (B) better to allow
> access to the content from where ever it may be relevant. If B, is it
> better to link to the content in one area or to have it live in multiple
> areas? 
> 
> -Tom
> Thomas Donehower
> Manager, Information Architecture
> 
> EURO RSCG Life Interaction
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