Can I use UML for modelling website navigation

Question

Can I use UML for modelling website navigation? If so someone give me some books/links for referrence (UML for websites kind of...!!!). If not so what are the tools for this? And basically I am a programmer and when I designed my previous website I just sketched down different page design ideas on paper and opted the one that I felt suitable. Then I did implement that design using html/css from scratch.

Is this the approach generally taken by all or have tools for drawing the to be implemented website designs (Wireframe kind of..)? Is the CMS meant for this? Please guide me on this.

Thanks

Answer 1

From time to time, I'll (ab)use a state diagram to lay out a site. Each "state" represents a page (or group of pages), each "transition" a flow from one page (group) to another.

I don't try to capture all navigation: that becomes impractically noisy very quickly. However it can be useful for capturing primary flows, e.g:

• Arrive at home page, select login, navigate to login page
• Enter credentials
• If credentials correct: navigate to post-login landing page
• otherwise: remain on login page

etc.

It's not a 'proper' state diagram but can be useful. You might also want to look at Garrett Information Architecture. It's a bespoke notation for the same problem but has a richer set of symbols.

hth.

Answer 2

Maybe, you will find this article useful : http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/rational/library/4697.html

This article detailing user interface navigation via UML Activity Diagrams.

Answer 3

You might want to take a look at UWE, as it is as close as possible to UML and can do the job. The only problem is that there aren't many tutorials or documentation available.

Answer 4

If you're using UML in other parts of the design process, it makes sense to ensure that the user interface you put together meets your use cases. However, I've never used UML to actually design the layout or flow of a site.

We use Axure to mock up user interfaces, as this helps to let the customer/user have a play with the flow before spending time crafting the actual pages.

That said, I still do my website design using a pencil and paper.