THE PAGEBROWSER FIELD GUIDE
See how a whole website fits together.
Follow the relationship between pages, understand the visitor’s journey, and map a clear route through the content.
A website is a connected experience. To understand it, follow the pages that help a visitor complete a real task. This guide offers a practical way to inspect a whole site: choose a goal, map the route, and document how navigation and content support each decision along the way.
Choose a visitor's goal
Use a concrete task such as understanding a service, comparing two options, or finding setup instructions. Begin where that visitor might arrive, including a detail page reached directly. Follow the links you would reasonably expect to help. Note missing information, unclear labels, and useful explanations without guessing at the site's intentions.
Map pages and shared elements
Create a short list of the pages you visit and the links connecting them. Separate recurring navigation and footer information from content unique to each page. MDN describes planning how pages are arranged and linked as information architecture. A rough sitemap can make those relationships easier to discuss before changing the design.
Compare journeys consistently
Repeat the same task on another website, using the same notes. Record where a choice becomes clear, which questions remain unanswered, and how someone can return to earlier information. Preserve page URLs and the date of your review. End with a small set of improvements for your own site, each tied to an observed step in the journey.
For the underlying guidance, see Structuring documents | MDN.
Map a visitor’s next question
| Page | Question it should answer |
|---|---|
| Homepage | What is this, and where should I begin? |
| Topic or service | Does this address my need, and what are the details? |
| About | What is the purpose and editorial or working approach? |
| Article or resource | What can I learn, and where does the evidence come from? |
| Contact | How can I ask a relevant question or take the next step? |
Look for gaps between pages
Read menu labels as promises. Then open the destinations and ask whether those promises are fulfilled. Check that a deep article links back to a useful topic page, that the footer reaches important resources, and that the visitor can recover from taking an unhelpful route.
Build around a small number of meaningful journeys. A navigation menu becomes harder to understand when every subject competes at the same level. Group related topics and give each destination a distinct purpose.
See the webpage starter collection for simple page structures, or return to the page browser for research starting points.