Site-wide category alignment audit

2026-05-15 · sketch · proposal for IA consolidation across dare.co.uk

Triggered by today’s /industrial-design/ 404 (Dan in chat). Investigation surfaced 14 section-shaped directories with article subdirectories but no root index.html — every one currently returns 404 when visited at the section root. Total: 383 articles across 14 dead section roots.

The directive: align categories to one of the three canonical homes (methods-of-business-design, culture-means-thriving-teams, fields-notes-from-business-design) unless a category demands its own location that can be imagined.

This report inventories what exists, proposes mappings + standalones, and asks for the editorial verdict per row before any moves happen.

TL;DR

The 14 orphaned section roots

Sorted by article count (largest = highest impact when fixed):

Section Articles Currently Proposed target Rationale
/observations/ 212 404 (redirects to /) STANDALONE — keep Largest corpus on the site. “Observations” is a distinct editorial mode (field-record, not analysis). Deserves first-class home
/fine-arts/ 44 404 STANDALONE — keep Substantial corpus, distinct cultural vertical. Adjacent to /cinema/ + /photography/
/future-media/ 31 404 STANDALONE — keep 31 articles is more than enough material for a section page; “future media” is its own observational lens
/industrial-design/ 23 404 STANDALONE — keep Strong material identity; pairs with the design-vertical work (Dieter Rams, Aston Martin, Braun, etc.). Big enough
/new-york-city/ 15 404 fold into field-notes Place-based observations; field-notes is the natural home
/albums/ 14 404 fold into culture-means-thriving-teams Music-as-culture; 14 articles isn’t enough to warrant standalone
/places/ 14 404 fold into field-notes-from-business-design Place observations = field notes
/user-interface/ 12 404 STANDALONE — keep Design vertical, separable from industrial-design. Worth its own home — UI ≠ industrial design in editorial mind
/narrative/ 5 404 fold into culture-means-thriving-teams Narrative belongs with culture/editorial
/psychology/ 4 404 fold into culture-means-thriving-teams Psychology informs culture
/visual-communications/ 3 404 fold into methods-of-business-design Visual comms = design method
/archive/ 3 404 investigate Weird name; what’s in there? May be legacy WP artifact
/writing/ 2 404 fold into culture-means-thriving-teams OR drop Only 2 articles; minimum-viable retention question
/users/ 1 404 investigate / drop Singleton — likely WP-author-page artifact, not editorial content

Subtotal: 4 standalone keepers (observations / fine-arts / future-media / industrial-design / user-interface — actually 5) + 9 fold-ups + 2 to investigate.

Why the proposed splits

Standalone keepers (5)

Each has enough article volume AND distinct editorial identity to deserve its own home:

Fold-ups (9)

Each has too few articles for a standalone section OR fits naturally inside one of the 3 canonical spines:

Investigate (2)

Implementation patterns per row

Standalone keepers — build the index page

Same pattern as this morning’s 6 section builds (cinema, architecture, etc.) — extend ~/bin/dare_section_indexes_build.py to include the 5 new keepers, run, commit, ship.

Then for the 3 main editorial sections, the Phase 2 work from dare_strategy_section_archive_realignment_2026-05-15 builds the rich archive view variant.

Fold-ups — 301 redirects

For each fold-up, add a redirect rule that catches BOTH the section root AND any deep links to articles within it:

/albums/                            /culture-means-thriving-teams/   301
/albums/*                           /culture-means-thriving-teams/   301

(Or per-article mapping if you want each old article URL to redirect to a specific equivalent — but that’s much more work and likely overkill since article-URL traffic is low.)

Question for Dan: are the article-level URLs (e.g., /albums/blipfm/) being actively visited / cited externally? If yes, per-article preservation may matter. If no, blanket-redirect to the section is fine.

Investigate cases

Open questions for Dan

Per-row editorial verdicts requested (the proposal column is a starting point, not a decision):

  1. /observations/ (212 articles) — confirm STANDALONE? Or fold into field-notes (its closest sibling in editorial mode)?
  2. /fine-arts/ (44) — confirm STANDALONE? Or fold into culture?
  3. /future-media/ (31) — confirm STANDALONE? Or fold into field-notes?
  4. /industrial-design/ (23) — confirm STANDALONE? (Strong candidate)
  5. /user-interface/ (12) — confirm STANDALONE? Or fold into methods/industrial-design as a hybrid section?
  6. Per-article URL preservation for fold-ups — needed, or blanket redirect OK?
  7. /archive/ (3 articles) — open the 3, decide each separately
  8. /users/ (1 article) — probably drop. Confirm?
  9. /writing/ (2 articles) — fold into culture, OR drop entirely?

What “done” looks like

Once the editorial verdicts land and implementation runs:

Watch items

Sequencing recommendation

  1. First — Dan reviews this report + answers the 9 open questions (~10-15 min)
  2. Second — investigate the 2 weird cases (/archive/, /users/) and decide their fate
  3. Third — extend ~/bin/dare_section_indexes_build.py with the 5 confirmed keepers, run, commit, ship (~30 min)
  4. Fourth — add fold-up redirects to _redirects (~10 min, can batch in one commit)
  5. Fifth — re-run the 404 audit to confirm zero section-root entries; spot-check the catalog

Total estimated time: 1-2 hours depending on how much investigation /archive/ + /users/ need.

Linked artefacts

Generated 2026-05-15 afternoon. No moves yet — awaiting per-row editorial verdicts before execution.

Source: dare_strategy_category_alignment_audit_2026-05-15.md · Rendered 2026-05-15 12:51