Hierarchical vs. Hub like sites
Keith Robinson has written a excellent article about hierarchical vs. hub like homepages:
What I’ve got a problem with is the idea that one way of organization is going to make everyone happy. This will never be the case, and, as with many other Web challenges a compromise will need to be reached. Unfortunately, the nature of the site map deliverable, and the process behind it, don’t really lend themselves to compromise or consensus. This creates a bloated process and quite a bit of effort that is, ultimately, wasted if it doesn’t help people find what they are looking for.
The comments are also very interesting and thought-provoking.
I so often was annoyed by hierarchical built sites where the keywords seemed to obscure to get the information I wanted. When this happens, I go first for a search and second for a sitemap.