[Sigia-l] landing page vs. no landing page

[Hilary Marsh]

I hope it's okay that I ask a pedantic question. I'm not an IA, but 
sometimes on small projects do IA work in addition to my usual 
content strategy and management services.

I'm working on the website for a nonprofit organization. The 
organization's current site uses rollovers, so the user sees the 
top-level nav categories but can only go to the second-level content. 
(I.e., the top-level category is "areas of interest" and when you 
mouse over that, you see the areas -- arts, environment, etc. -- 
"areas" is not a link but the things under it are.)

One category -- "about us," of course -- has a page labeled 
"introduction," which is effectively the landing page for that 
section. It's the only section that has such a page. (And why is 
"about us" always the problem-child section, anyway? I've encountered 
this on almost every site I've worked on.)

I usually try to make navigation consistent, in that sections either 
have landing pages -- which often requires writing static fluff 
content that no one reads or cares about -- or not have them -- which 
results in the occasional "introduction" page.

How do you all feel about this? I look forward to your input.

Many thanks,

Hilary

-- 
Hilary Marsh
president, content company inc
plan  *  create  *  manage
http://www.contentcompany.biz
708.217.3922

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