Deliverable 03 · Define

Sitemap & Information Architecture

Every section of the public site, the Hawk Portal and the staff tools, organized around what people come to do.

Organized around what people come to do

Card sorting with 18 students and 6 staff (fictional) showed that visitors don’t think in terms of college departments. They think in terms of “I want to start,” “I want to learn,” “I want to belong” and “I need to get something done.” The navigation follows that model.

Rule 1

Six doors, no more

Six top-level sections plus a persistent Apply button. Each section opens a mega-menu showing every child page.

Rule 2

Audience paths up front

“I am a…” paths (first-time, transfer, high school, adult, international, military) live under Future Students.

Rule 3

Two clicks to anything urgent

Apply, Request Info, the Hawk Portal and the academic calendar are reachable from every page.

Rule 4

Structured lists, not pages

Programs, news, events, teams and people are generated listings with filters, not hand-built pages.

Public sitemap

This tree is generated live from the site’s main menu (41 menu entries today). When an editor adds or moves a page in Drupal’s menu, this diagram updates automatically.

Home · palmettoridge.test

About

Future Students

Academics

Student Life

Athletics

News & Events

Beyond the public menu

Some areas are intentionally outside the main navigation: utility links, signed-in experiences and staff tools.

Utility & footer

Hawk Portal Students

  • Home: today’s classes, alerts
  • My Classes · Registration
  • Degree Progress · RidgeLearn
  • Tuition & Aid
  • Advising · Hawk Mail · Get Help
  • Announcements (CMS-managed)

Staff tools Staff

  • Dashboard (/admin/dashboard)
  • Content · Media library
  • Enrollment inquiries (Admissions)
  • Main menu & homepage blocks (Communications)
  • People & roles (Admin)

URL & labeling conventions

Readable, permanent URLs are generated automatically by Pathauto, so editors never type a URL.

ContentPatternExample
Pages/section/page-name (set in the menu)/about/history
Programs/academics/programs/[title]/academics/programs/welding
News/news/[title]/news/…
Events/events/[title]/events/…
Teams/athletics/teams/[title]/athletics/teams/volleyball
People/directory/[name]/directory/…
← PreviousPersonas & Journey Maps Next →Content Model & Migration

Palmetto Ridge Junior College is a fictional institution. This case study demonstrates process and deliverables for portfolio purposes.