Creating Killer Web-Site Blueprints
By Christopher Schmitt
Usually, when I begin a new Web project, I use paper and pencil to sketch out the site's scope. In the past, I used Adobe Illustrator to create vector-based site maps that looked great but took time and effort to maintain links as development progressed. The larger the site structure, the harder it was to maintain the outline.
Inspiration is a visual tool targeted primarily at educators, which lets you map out site architecture. With Inspiration, you use symbols to represent the key points of the Web site, such as primary and secondary pages and hyperlinks. You use links—lines that connect symbols—to show how ideas and concepts flow and relate. Inspiration is like a visual plotting tool that helps you see interdependencies between links and pages. It's been a part of my Web-development toolkit ever since I saw its power firsthand.
When you first open the program, you start with a blank page and an empty cluster—Inspiration's way to identify groupings of ideas—waiting to be filled in. The software comes with predefined templates, such as bubble diagrams, but most of these aren't geared for sophisticated site maps. You can, however, save a file as a template for reuse.
A key timesaving feature is the ability to link between symbols quickly using the F9 key.
