Where can I find info about rudimentary navigation / architecture paradigms?

Question

I need something that refers to classic approaches to structure content and the reason to choose them over others.

For example:

Tabs - use tabs when the different sections co exist and can be navigated to at any time.

Wizard - use a wizard when the sections depend on each other and need to be visited in a fixed order.

Hub and spoke - use when designing a UI that contains several discrete tasks or content but you don't want to link the sections to each other.

Jennifer Tidwell's pattern repository does this well.

This presentation by Donna Spencer is another example.

I 'd like to have more resources.

Answer 1

You have a pretty wide question which takes a book to answer - so I'd recommend Information Architecture for the World Wide Web: Designing Large-Scale Web Sites by Louis Rosenfeld and Peter Morville.

It has everything you need when it comes to navigation patterns. But if you'd like something more light weight I'd suggest Navigation patterns for ten common types of websites which is a really good introduction on the topic.

Next step, if your a real geek like me, take a Bachelors Degree in Information Architecture at Malmo University :-)

Answer 2

You've already found Jennifer Tidwell's work - which would have been my first recommendation. Having a Google around for pattern libraries will probably provide some useful food for thought.

Take a look at the Yahoo! design pattern library for example.