Opinions of Active Website Reviewers - Site Indeces

[KDLA]

Hello -

I am in the midst of redesigning my agency's site index, and am in need of some help selecting a format. For those who are active in the website review forum, could you please refer me to some sites you have reviewed in the past through this forum or by other means that have a good layout for a site index?

Keep these points in mind:

- our website has over 500 pages (yes, we've got a search function, but there's always a small grouchy minority who prefer using the index.)

- also, our website is CSS-based in both styles and positioning

- the design can't depend on javascript

Thanks!
KDLA

[the tree]

How many catagories are these 500 pages divided into?
If it's less than 20 then take a look at http guru (http://www.httpguru.com/), just the top, not the actual forum bit. Of course it's not that good from a coding perspective but visually it's good quality and does make getting around easy.
If there's also a news section then the w3 page manages to handle having a gazzilion pages quite neatly, of course the colors and graphics are as ugly as sin but the layouts not bad.

Also, read spruced up site maps (http://www.alistapart.com/articles/sprucemaps/).

[KDLA]

Thanks, thetree -

Right now, its a mish-mash of title listings and categories. We have such diverse services that not everything fits into a specific category... however,
I'd guess there are 20 categories, with about 50-75 pages not fitting into one of those.

My main worry is that with the page being so long (the overall concensus is that it all be on one page), it will be hard to scan. If I divide it into columns to maximize space, it'll still be hard to scan.

It's amazing how something so easy can become so hard!

Thanks again -
KDLA

[JDM71488]

id say do a database... it would be more efficient imho... less pages, but the transfer of data would be the only downfall...

why don't you give us the url to the current so we can grasp the situation better?

[KDLA]

Hi JDM71488 -

That sounds like a good idea, but unfortunately we can't host a database on our web server. We're a government agency with all sorts of firewalls and security settings that prevent transfer of data across networks. Last time we had a database on the server, some nuts hacked in and changed quite a bit of stuff to cuss words.

As to providing a link, I'm too ashamed of the current index to submit to the forum. It's made up of a gazillion tables.
I'll submit my updated design to the forum once its settled.

Thanks for your input. I appreciate your time and consideration!

KDLA