Site Geography Lee Sinclair 10th September 2004

Objectives Introduce the idea of site geography Discuss possibilities Open the floor for discussion

Outline What is site geography? How would it work? Why is it useful? –Chunking - Countries, states, cities and suburbs –Traffic - Highways, Main roads and streets and dusty tracks –Activity

What is Site Geography? A concept of mapping information elements (such as pages) with the context of a cadastral plane Places (towns) on the map represent information elements Proximity to other fragments represent the relationship information has to each other

How Would it Work? Information fragment alignment Market Orientation Council Lifestyle Council Individual Large Corporate SME Corporate Other Councils Groups CommunityBrisbaneBusiness eTenders Sport and Recreation Strategy Water Strategy Find a Council Job Permits and Licences What’s OnSeniors DA Submissions Migrants and refugees Cemeteries Development applications Conveyance Searches About Council Each box (town) represents an information element; The proximity of towns communicates a relationship, ie towns towards the edge of boxes are related to nearby regions, whereas towns in the center of the box are not related to other areas; Each axis is a continuum, the bottom axis a continuum from one classification of information to another. While the Y axis is a continuum of market segments; The choice of axis continuums is the most difficult. Within small sites, information elements can be assigned co- ordinates by hand. Within a large site automated tools could be used to calculate the relationship between information elements.

Chunking Information fragment alignment Market Orientation Council Individual Page h Page f Page b Find a Council Job Apprenticeships and traineeships Page d Page e Page a Page c Page j Page i About Council Based on tasks and user stories e.g. applying for a job Information elements can be grouped visually; When new pages are added, their relationship with other pages can be quickly established, moreover how information elements should be linked;

Information fragment alignment Market Orientation Council Individual Page h Page f Page b Find a Council Job Apprenticeships and traineeships Page d Page e Page a Page c Page j Page i About Council Traffic - Highways, Major roads and dusty tracks Highway Major road Main street Street Dusty track Bike track Metrics can be fed into the system, that can establish pathways through a website by traffic; Quickly pathways to a town can be determined (eg by clicking on a town), showing direct and indirect paths; Lengthy paths can be established and analysed, particularly lengthy highways.

Activity Information fragment alignment Market Orientation Council Individual Page h Page f Page b Find a Council Job Apprenticeships and traineeships Page d Page e Page a Page c Page j Page i About Council Another application of metrics is website activity; Activity and other information can be displayed using a third dimension (colour); In the diagram left, highly active areas are shaded light grey, while les active areas are dark grey; Areas shaded blank (ie. no traffic) would identify areas that have had little or no traffic. Using time based information, the activity could be played like a movie and similar to a weather map showing hot and cold areas over a day, week, month, quarter or year. In this way identifying cycles in behaviour, or recent areas of interest;