Making the Site Map Earn Its Keep

One issue that web designers face is whether to have “secondary home pages.” Should there be mini-homes for each section, with links to just the items in that section? Such secondary gateways are logical, but sometimes confuse readers. An alternative which has become more common is to use hierarchical popout menus from a single home page, or from every page; but they can be confusing too — even overwhelming — and some people have trouble using them.

I’ve opted for an unusual approach that seems simpler to me: site-wide nav buttons or links that refer to certain main site sections (for example, Business Writing or Just For Fun) simply jump to the part of this site map that lists (and links to) all the items in that section.