Navigation Issues

It was my aim when starting to build my website that I would build the frame of the entire site first and would then start to bring in content. This gives me a frame that I can reuse easily and quickly for every page. I'm at that point now, so I'm just going back and looking at the content within my iBook and finalising how I can divide it all up/what pages I need etc.

In my iBook (what this website is based off) I have 4 chapters. Within each of those there are sections , and within those are pages (describing each section). My original plan for this site involved creating 11 pages (a page per section). However, on my home page I planned on having the main navigation links (under the main logo) not to link to any internal pages but to link to different places on the same page. This has left me with an issue that's been at the back of my mind the entire time I've been building this site - how do people link to the internal pages? Initially the plan was to have links within the text on the home page that links to them. However, I want to make the website as easy to use as possible, so why would I introduce another step in a users journey to finding the information they need?

Ideally, the links at the top of the page in the main navigation should link to the equivalent chapter pages within the website as that's generally what a user expects to happen when they click to them. To me it seems unnatural for them to attempt to navigate to information and for them to essentially only be taken half way there.

I do not want to introduce drop down menus into my navigation, it just does not seem necessary. Besides, I already have a nicely designed way of arranging information on the page - the 'tabbed', different coloured sections on the page.

I have spoken with a few peers about this and how they think I should arrange information and the general consensus seems to be reduce the amount of pages. There are already several pages within each section that I have merged together simply because standing on their own does not really equate to enough information on one page.

Plan:
-  Main navigation links (below logo) will link to each chapter page.
-  Each chapter page (e.g. "What is a Volcano?") will be split up in similar fashion to the home page, with each section being a different colour.
-  The sections on the home page will contain a summary of each question answered in that chapter, as well as images and some "did you know" facts. There will be links here to navigate to the internal pages too.
-  The sections on the home page will not be 'required reading' but it shall be made clear that they are there (they are tucked beneath the fold of the page so aren't necessarily immediately obvious). They should be thought of as 'teasers' as to what can be discovered within the website. They will also contain links to certain pages and areas within those pages.

Overcoming Software Restrictions

Designing my iBook through live editing that consistently updates on the iPad to allow me to check all new elements and make decisions based on the appearance of the iBook on it. 

I just wanted to give a quick update of where I am in the project.

I'm currently building my iBook in iBooks Author. I have chosen a design that I want to settle on, so am loading those into the software and overcoming problems with sizing and the restrictions that iBooks Author has.

I understand that iBooks Author is designed to be as easy and essentially fool-proof for anyone to use, you just replace their content with yours and tah-da! there's your iBook, but when I'm trying to design something a bit more complex it's near impossible. I've had to simplify my design and reconsider how the book shall read.

A restriction that I've found is with the 'Table of Contents'. If I had it my way, I would remove it. It's annoying and just doesn't feel very user friendly for someone who is new to using iBooks. My initial plan was to have just the one contents page, with links to each of the 4 chapters incorporated into the design, which can then be navigated back to from anywhere within the iBook. This, however, has not worked out.

My initial plan for the design of my one contents page

iBooks author requires that you have a separate contents page for each chapter, which you are presented with at the beginning of the iBook. Like below.

Chapter 1                                                                                       Chapter 2

In order to overcome this, I needed to overhaul the way my iBook navigated and redesign the pages that navigate to each chapter. I went back to my sketchbook and sketched some ideas, and then attempted the following design.

One of the first problems I came across was the way the contents page for each chapter displays a preview of all of the pages in that chapter along the bottom of the page, so it obstructed the design of the page and I did not like the look of it.

So, I then had to re-shift the border of the page so that it appeared above and around that area where the thumbnails would appear. I just preferred the look of it and it provided a clearer backing for the thumbnails to stand against. Also, there's nothing in my design that overlays anything else, so by having a relatively transparent rectangle laying over the top of it it did not match the design style.

This meant reducing the amount of the volcano that was visible, but I'm not too bothered by this as I think the lava that I have drawn that comes out of the top of it makes it clear enough that it's a volcano. 

Back to the re-design design of the Contents pages. I was aiming for an alternate left-right-left-right on the content links as I felt it would break up the continuous repeat of having each page designed exactly the same. So, I designed the following pages.

So, I imported this and then started formatting the titles that would appear on each page and positioning them where I thought correct. Whilst doing this I discovered that if you move one thing on one page, e.g. the Chapter title, it moves it on all of the other contents pages too. This meant I couldn't have alternating positions on each page and would need to settle for a design that was the same on each page. I stuck with having the text on the right hand side and the volcano on the left and decided on alternating the colours on each page instead. 

I've now started to import all of my content into my iBook.