Public View Design :
Content & navigation on top level pages
[1] MAIN PAGES FOR EACH SECTION
I think the site home page in should be divided by major section (News, Research, Resources), as seen below, with stories coming from any level (local, state, national). We should probably have three additional story title links under each lead story (per section). If we go this route, we might want to add the location to the type of item in italics above each story title (e.g., National: Available Funds) on this page.
On the site home page, the right and left side bar links would work as follows:
- left side: take you to the main page for that issue area, dividing the body by location (levels) but not restricted to a single type of story.
- right side: take you to the main page for that type of News, Research or Resource, dividing the body by location (levels) but not restricted to a single issue.
If the user uses one of the tabs at the top to move to News, Research, or Resources, those main News & Research pages should be divided by location (level) since they will not have selected an issue area yet. Note in the sample below that the right hand side bars provide general links to the specific news categories but do not show a count since no issue has been selected. We should probably have three additional story title links under each lead story (per section). Using those links will take you to a page that shows only that news type in the three levels (local, state, national):
[2] ISSUE PAGES
When the user selects an issue area on the left side of the page, that should re-focus the body content on entries related to that issue area for that section. The page for each specific issue area would be divided by level but only show stories for that issue area. The right hand side bars would display the number of stories and the research categories specific to the issue area being viewed:
From these issue pages, if a user selects a News or Research category that would re-focus the page on the News or Research results for that issue.
Note that in the mock-up above, the right sidebar has changed to provide some additional navigational information for the user. We should discuss whether this is a good idea. I'm not sure it is necessary, advisable, or even possible.