Revised Site map for In Pursuit of Tea

The old major navbar for this site has these elements:
Why Drink Tea
About Our Tea
Types of Tea
Purchase Our Tea
How to Brew
History of Tea
Tea & Exploration
Tea & Health
Links We Like

I found navigation in this site to be confusing; too many informational pages were linked to too many other ones. It was hard to figure out if I had read everything. I think the categories could be pared down considerably (at a screen resolution of 800 x 600, I had to scroll down to read the entire list!).

Here is my proposal:

Only THREE main categories:

About Tea
About Us
Store

These three would appear in a navbar on the left-hand column of the main page. Content in the large column of the main page could change periodically with links to news, promotional sales, etc.
The left-hand column of each page could contain the three main items. When you click on one -- say you are in the About Tea section -- the links to specific items in that area would appear as clickable links as well.

About Tea

Introduction (Camellia Sinensis | Types of Tea)
History of Tea | Legends of Tea
Enjoying Tea (How to brew | Packaging teas| Storing teas |Judging teas)
Tea & health (Tea & health | Why Drink Tea | Tea & caffeine)
Tea FAQ
Tea Glossary


About Us

Contact Us (Email, FAX & phone | Subscribe to One-Minute Tea Tip | Privacy)
About our tea | small farms | who we are | about In Pursuit of Tea
Tea and Exploration -- rename Tea Trips? (assuming this category always concerns tea-related trips taken by company staff; if not, it should be in the "About Tea" section).
Links We Like


Store

I only have a few minor changes for the navbar in this section. I would eliminate the extra links for Oolong Teas and Latest Tea Arrivals (see "Purchase Our Tea" table in Lesson 3 homework). I would also add new links to the About Tea and About Us areas under the Home link. I would skip a line between the three links to other areas of the website and the links within the store area. This is a Yahoo! store, so we probably have them to thank for the clarity and usability of this section. The navbar appears in a left-hand column on every page in this section except for "Help" (which goes to a Yahoo! information page) and "Email" (which opens your email program and makes a new message with the company address in the "to" field -- assuming your browser is configured correctly).

Home
About Tea
About Us

White Tea
Green Tea
Black Tea
Pu-erh Tea
Tea Samplers
Herbal Infusions
Ice Teas
Tea Gifts
Teaware & Accessories
Order by phone
Oolong Teas
Latest Tea Arrivals

Show Order
Help
Search
Index
Email

Navigation from the Bottom

The webpage currently has a text navigation bar at the bottom of every page:
Home | About Us | Purchase Tea | Email Us! | FAQ | Glossary | Privacy
I would pare this down to:
Home | Store | Contact Us | Glossary

Better yet, I would eliminate it altogether. This navbar appears not only at the bottom of every page, but at the bottom of every section, when several sections of text make up a page (for example, About Our Tea, Small Farms, Who We Are, and About In Pursuit of Tea are all on one page), and I find this really annoying. About Us links to the aforementioned page (with the sections About Our Tea, Small Farms, Who We Are, and About In Pursuit of Tea), and I don't know why this would need to be linked to every page. The glossary of tea terms, however, could be helpful when one is reading the informational pages. The FAQ could happily remain in the About Tea area. I see no reason to put the Privacy link anywhere except in the About Us (Contact Us) area, since it links to a form granting permission to the company to share one's contact information with other companies.