This website is structured like a coconut tree. A coconut tree is a simple tree which has a single stem and a bunch of leaves. Each leaf has a petiole and some leaflets. Why did we chose a coconut tree? Unlike the mighty Oak, the coconut tree has no branches.
WEBSITE STRUCTURE
Petiole
Leaflet
In the above picture on the left you see the structure of a palm leaf and on the right an abstract picture of the same. In our website pages you will see the abstract representation of a petiole or a leaflet on the top left corner of the page (below the header) to represent where you are in the page hierarchy.
Where is the stem of the coconut tree?
That is the Home page.
Where are the coconuts?
We removed the coconuts so that they don't fall on your head while you browse the pages of the site.
Here is another way to look at the structure of the website.
Structure of the HOME page
The HOME page is divided into 3 sections as follows:
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A general description of the website.
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A section that contains links to the 'petiole' pages. These are the main gateway to the contents of the website. They serve as a general classification for the contents of the site. Each link is represented like a playing card with an image and a short description.
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A picture carousel of about 12 images that shows the evolution of a fallen tree into turned objects.
Structure of the PETIOLE pages
I am calling them the 'Petiole' pages for lack of a better name. They form the middle layer in the 3 layer hierarchy of the site. They serve as a general classification of data. All the petiole pages can be reached from the Home page. Though each page may have a different look and feel from the rest, a lot of those pages follow a similar theme. They have an article written by one of the club members on the left and links to the LEAFLET pages on the right and bottom. These pages serve as a conduit to the actual data the visitor is interested in. The petiole pages can be identified by the presence of the abstract petiole symbol on the top left corner of the page (below the header).
Structure of the LEAFLET pages
The LEAFLET pages are the final destination the visitor is interested in. Most of them contain image galleries or write ups about demos, articles written by members, or a combination of image galleries and articles. Leaflets that came from a petiole all have a similar structure. But they may vary in structure from leaflets from other petiole pages. All leaflet pages have the abstract image of a Leaflet on the top left corner of the page.
Classification of Data
Classification of data is a tricky business.
As an example, a demo by Andi Wolfe can be classified as either a
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Professional Demo
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Embellishment
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Women in Turning
We give different weightage to each classification to solve this dilemma. In this case any Andi Wolfe demo will be filed under Women In Turning rather than Embellishment or Professional Demo. It is the same with any articles written by members. Therefore a visitor to the site looking for information may end up looking in the wrong location and find it a little difficult to spot certain information. This is a universal problem for any website and no clean solution exists. We have implemented a Site Search feature that solves most of the classification problems. That will be explained in the website-search page.
Data Sorting
We do not archive old data in separate archive sections. Data is sorted on each page with older data at the bottom and new data at the top. Our club has a long and rich history with tons of data. All available data is captured in the website and shared with the public.
Members Only Area
We don't need our members to login to reach any part of this website. In fact the website is open to the public. Though we don't need members to login, there is a Member Profiles page where they can enter their personal profile that only SVW members can view. That page requires validation using an OTP (One Time Password) send to their phone.
We do have a separate communications channel and a place to store our club 'confidential' documents like the roster, meeting minutes, and miscellaneous documents for club 'bureaucrats'. They are all accessible to members in good standing through a password protected groups.io group. There are links to access the same in the About page of this website. Those links are marked as "Members Only" in the icon.