headingbased

Headingbased is a term used to describe an approach to organizing, processing, or presenting content that is anchored in the structure provided by headings within a document. In this context, headings denote the logical hierarchy of information and serve as the primary units for navigation, parsing, and data extraction.

Definition and scope: Headingbased emphasizes using heading elements to delimit sections and subsections, with the heading level indicating the level of importance or specificity. This concept is relevant to information architecture, web development, document processing, and content management systems, where the heading hierarchy underpins automatic outlining, summarization, and navigation features.

Background and rationale: The practice arises from the widespread use of headings to convey structure in text. By aligning processing and presentation with headings, tools can produce consistent outlines, improve accessibility, and facilitate automated analysis. Headingbased design encourages content creators to reflect semantic relationships rather than relying solely on formatting.

Applications: Examples include generating tables of contents from heading hierarchies, enabling screen readers to navigate efficiently, indexing documents for search and retrieval, and extracting topic-specific data from structured documents. In web contexts, semantic HTML headings (H1–H6) are a primary enabler of headingbased workflows.

Implementation guidelines: Use a clear, semantic heading structure (start with a single H1 for the main title, use H2 for major sections, and descend logically). Ensure heading tags reflect content meaning, avoid skipping levels, and provide alternative navigation methods for non-visual users. In non-HTML contexts, establish equivalent structural markers.

See also: Information architecture, Semantic HTML, Document outline, Accessibility, Content management.