- [[{2.2a1a} the architecture and landscape of your content can hold or limit attention]]. Rigid navigation can make rich, large websites feel small. Typically, only the material listed on key pages will be read and important material effectively vanishes once they aren't on the homepage. - Think of the typical homepage for a website; you'll have a series of links in the header, you might link to other key pages within the homepage's body, and you might have a feed of recently posted or most read blog posts. There may be *dozens* of other pages and articles on this site, but it's unlikely that users will navigate to them on their own using the provided navigational landmarks and guideposts. - Once an article is no longer considered "recent" or "most read", it will likely stop receiving as much traffic. - Users will typically return to the home page, post feed page, or use other navigational tools like categories to move through content. This can create a premature sense of closure when they return to "landmarks", discouraging them from exploring other material. - There are fewer serendipitous discoveries; users will read one article that may or may not answer their question, and then they'll leave. - Some of these things are partially mitigated by search engines (i.e, a high-ranking posts will still receive traffic, even if it isn't highly visible on your website), but, in general, **structured navigation limits your user experience** and doesn't allow you to direct the flow of traffic in interesting, captivating ways. - It also forces a nearly-arbitrary prioritization of your content. What material makes it to the homepage? Is it what’s performing best? What if top-performers aren’t your “best” content? Is it the content *you* consider to be the best? What if that’s not what your audience wants to read? - By taking the digital gardening approach to writing, learning, and sharing, you don't have to predict what your readers want; they're able to explore freely, not immediately applying value to each piece.