[thelist] process/architecture diagramming

[martin burns]

> I gave up on trying to diagram websites long ago.  It simply does not
> work
> after your website grows past about 20 pages.  Try drawing a diagram for
> a
> website with several hundreds or thousands of pages, not to mention
> dynamically generated pages.  Not realistic.  

You may not diagram every page (and most often you're not doing autopsy diagrams anyway, you're doing IA for an developing site), but you do need to be able to identify sections.

And you will need to map *every* step of a user process (like registration), which may be as detailed as a step for every single field, and all the stuff the server's doing (like validating postcodes, or checking that the re-entered password matches).

As well as a process flow, storyboards are also useful, even if they're only indicative ("here's a typical page in this section") and thrown together in PowerPoint.

>And after you work on
> sites
> that large for a while, you simply do not need to diagram the smaller
> sites
> anymore.  At least, not for your own use.

Still unsure about this - it's a very good discipline to get into.

Cheers
Martin