Tip #26

Website identify

As users to your site move from page to page on the site, can they clearly tell where they are located? Do they feel they are on the same site?

There are various things that can help make pages seem like they are part of a common site:

• The use of a common graphic or logo throughout a site; sometimes on secondary pages, the identification logo is smaller than on the first page
• Use of a similar layout for pages
• Use of the same colors or fonts on pages
• A navigation scheme that is repeated on pages, so users do not have to re-orient themselves on each page

I have shown here selected pages from one site (which is the College of Education at the University of Arizona). The initial page has a bold graphic look

Secondary pages repeat the use of the apple logo but in a much smaller version.

As users go from one part of the site to another, this secondary page look is maintained, by repeating the logo and navigation options on the top left part of the page, even though other parts of the page might look different in terms of the layout and content.

Site identity is easier to maintain if you are the only one working on the site, or there is small group working on the site that agrees about the page layout. However, my experiences here in the University is that many of the larger colleges and units have to use a distributed system, and individual units and programs often go in "their own direction" in terms of page layouts and identity.

Note in the first page for the Education College's site, because they are using an imagemap there is a link at the bottom of the page for a text-only version of the front page.

These tips are created as part of a class on Dreamweaver Basics.