This is a site map I created for an early version of The Gospel Coalition website, back in 2007. I’m including it here as an example of what it looks like to create a site map on the basis of the usability, information architecture, and classification principles I outline in my resources.

Global Navigation

Main Sections

These are the main sections of the site. They will be displayed in the navigation across the top of the site, but beneath the logo.

Home
Resources
Themelios Journal
Conferences
TGC Network
About Us

Utilities

These are links that help people use the site or perform administrative actions, but which really aren’t part of the content hierarchy. They will be located in the upper right hand corner of the page, in smaller text than the main section navigation.

 Support
Join
Subscriptions
[Forthcoming] Help
Site Map
Contact Us

Footer

Ideally, you don’t want to introduce anything new in the footer navigation, unless you are introducing a whole new category of marginally-related links (such as network navigation that shows all the sites in an affiliated network). Consequently, my recommendation is that the footer navigation simply repeat the global navigation. It can also have another link to the subscriptions page. See desiringgod.org for an example of this.

Section-Specific Navigation

The content of the above main sections is outlined below. When reviewing the contents, keep these things in mind:

1. The regular-sized font bold items (for example, “Recommendations”) are not site pages, but organizing groups within the navigation.
2. In the resource categories, clicking on one of the resource categories (for example, articles) takes you to the first listed-sub page for that resource category (for example, “articles by topic”).
3. The footnotes give other ideas for organization and naming, and sometimes explain what will go on the page.

Home

The elements of the home page are contained in a separate document and wireframe, “The Elements of the Home Page.”

Resources

Recommendations
Most Popular
Recently Added
Recommended Reading

Resource Categories
Sermons

By Date
By Series
By Scripture Text
By Topic
By Speaker[1]
By Language
By Title

Conference Messages

By Date
By Conference
By Type[2]
By Scripture Text
By Topic
By Speaker
By Language
By Title

Interviews[3]

By Date
By Topic
By Speaker
By Language
By Title

Articles

By Date
By Topic
By Author
By Language
By Title

Journal Articles[4]

By Issue
By Date
By Scripture Text
By Topic
By Type[5]
By Author
By Language
By Title

Seminars

By Date
By Topic
By Speaker
By Language
By Title

Online Books

By Topic
By Author
By Language
By Title

Book Reviews[6]

By Date
By Topic
By Author
By Language
By Title

Questions and Answers

By Date
By Topic
By Speaker
By Language
By Title

Publications

Recent Books by Council Members
All Books by Council Members

Equipping Materials[7]

Other Ways to Browse
Topic Index
Scripture Index
Author Index
Language Index
Title Index

Subscriptions
Podcasts
RSS Feeds
Email Subscriptions

Themelios Journal

Current Issue[8]
Journal Archives

By Issue
By Date
By Topic
By Type
By Author
By Title

Conferences

[Name of Current Conference]
Speakers
Schedule
Interviews
Travel Info
Registration
Recommended Resources

Past Conferences
2007 National Conference

Conference Messages
Interviews
Photo Gallery

Etc.

Related Conferences[9]
[Name of Conference]
[Name of Conference]
Etc.

(Future Conference Navigation)

Once you have expanded your conference ministry, we would recommend the following navigation structure for the conferences section:

National Conferences
[Name of Current Conference]

Speakers
Schedule
Etc.

Past Conferences

2007 Conference
Etc.

Regional Conferences
[Name of Current Conference]
Past Conferences

International Conferences
[Name of Current Conference]
Past Conferences

TGC Network

Introduction
Benefits
Members
Join TGC Network
Theological Discussions[10]

About Us

The Gospel Coalition
Who We Are
What You Will Find on Our Site
Frequently Asked Questions
Board of Directors
Council Members
News

Foundational Documents
The Gospel for All of Life: Preamble
Confessional Statement
Theological Vision for Ministry

Get Involved
Contact Us
Support TGC
Join TGC Network

Site Help

Not sure if we even want to have this to start. But you will probably definitely need to create this when you get the chance, given the coming size of the site and extent of media. See the Desiring God help section for a good model: http://www.desiringgod.org/Help/.

Notes

[1] For resource category, the “by speaker/author” groupings could themselves be sub-divided into “by date,” “by series,” “by topic,” and “by title.” For certain authors/speakers will have a very large number of resources on the site, and this could allow their content to be more easily browsed.

[2] Types are: plenary talks, panel discussions, and workshops.

[3] I am not sure if we will end up feeling that “interviews” and “questions and answers” overlap substantially. If so, we would not want to have the interviews category, but rather have it merged with “questions and answers.” However, if possible, my recommendation is to have both. We have it this way on the Desiring God site and it works well.

[4] The Themelios Journal will also be its own major section of the site, so we may not also want to have its articles here. We could have the “Journal Articles” navigation item take the person to the Themelios Journals main section; however, in general it is bad practice to have a sub-navigation link in one section take the user to a different section.

[5] Types include: Book Reviews and Feature Articles.

[6] This creates a bit of a dilemma: Most of the “book reviews” will be from the Themelios Journal. Hence, it creates redundancy—and thus confusion—to have them as a distinct resource category as well. If almost every book review is coming from Themelios, then I don’t think we should have this as a resource category. Rather, with Themelios, we would have a “by type,” with the types being “book reviews,” “feature articles,” and whatever else.

[7] Christ on Campus would go in here.

[8] Also includes brief into to what Themelios is.

[9] This is where the conferences that you want to feature of council member churches would go.

[10] The chat feature is here. Since this feature will be a feature available only to members of the TGC Network, it makes sense to place it here in the TGC Network section. On the page there will be an explanation of what the online chat is, when the next one will be, and a sign-in box to sign in when the chat opens.