eValid™ -- Automated Web Quality Solution Browser-Based, Client-Side, Functional Testing & Validation, Load & Performance Tuning, Page Timing, Website Analysis, and Rich Internet Application Monitoring. © Copyright 2000-2008 by Software Research, Inc.

Introduction
The eValid 3D-SiteMaps provide a unique way to examine the structure and organization of a website. Study of the images, and progressive refinements based on observations, can identify problems and point out troublesome areas -- areas where users may become confused by the content or its layout.

Here are some things to look for in website efficiency and organization based on studying the 3D-SiteMaps produced by eValid.

Varying Your Views
After eValid has scanned your website or sub-website and you've created the link dependence tree you can start your analysis with the 3D-SiteMap. Remember: You can choose to redraw the 3D-SiteMap by right-clicking on the image node that you want to use as the new base.

There are several ways to proceed:

1. Start with the whole map. The looks at the site macroscopically.

2. Look at the map with only certain pages showing, i.e. discard the data form *jpgs and *gifs. This lets you concentrate on content pages and not on their supporting images and files, i.e. on the essential internal structure. (Or, you may want to re-generate the tree after changing the search protocol to include only the most-basic essential URL types.)

3. Redraw the picture to reflect a different root and study how the website looks from that base. Sometimes things are better (or much worse) from a different point of view.

Thing to Look For in Good WebSites
The most important rule is that there are not hard and fast rules -- every WebSite is different! What's good for one WebSite may be bad for another. After you gain experience looking a the 3D-SiteMap images you will learn to see -- very quickly -- what the good points and bad points of a WebSite are. Here are some initial ideas.

1. The base page should be small and should have a lot of downward links. There should be only a few upward links (you need some ways to return home, but not from every page). Too many links is bad; too few links is also bad.

2. The pages near the base should NOT include any large/slow pages. This improves navigation efficiency by making it possible to get to the "next page" quickly.

3. The number of links down from any node should be 25-75, in effect to limit the number of selections. There can be an exception when the node's selections are done with pulldowns or popouts.

4. Generally the large/slow pages should be near the bottom of the page. By the time someone has navigated there they kind of expect to see increased download times, so slowness deep in the site is usually not a negative.

5. The expansion ratio should be approximately constant from layer to layer. That is, if from the base you see 50 downward links, then that ratio should be preserved as you drop lower in the tree. This preserves a "uniformity of experience" look and feel.

6. Concentrations of dependence are not bad, but are something to watch out for -- not necessarily a problem . It may be OK to have one or several "subwebsites" within the site. Manual inspection is needed.

7. Lone-child pages are a symptom of "last minute addons," in which a page is added, hooked to its parent but never linked elsewhere in the site. Too many lone-child pages implies that the user will have to rely excessively on the "Back" button.