Standards for page types and design elements

Consistency in the user interface for a large website such as ccbcmd.edu is crucial.

The consistent use of design elements such as typography, composition and color to present information sends important cues to users that help them orient themselves and travel through a site.

Page types and their functions

When an interface changes haphazardly, and users are forced to continually re-orient themselves, it frustrates them and ultimately diminishes their ability to complete their intended task. For this reason, the Web Management Team has designed a collection of page types and associated visual templates so that the CCBC website maintains consistency.

Home

The website has one homepage (www.ccbcmd.edu) and it is the entry point for the majority of site visitors. It provides users with several methods of finding what they are looking for on the website. These include global navigation, utility navigation, general search, program/course search, portal logins, and featured content (e.g., events, news).

The college homepage is meant to serve as a conduit that helps our audiences connect to the information that is relevant to them. It should not be thought of as a bulletin board upon which the college can post everything we want every audience to see. CCBC does far too much for far too many different types of users for such an approach to be even remotely useful.

Homepage image sizes »

Key screens

There are a set of unique pages that have specific page designs related to the function they serve. These include landing pages for important global navigation hubs, pages that serve critical and specific content types (e.g., programs, courses, news, events) and search result pages.

Key screens image sizes »

Typical page

The most basic and most utilized page type throughout the site, the typical page is used to display all types of content including titles, headers, text, images, videos, calls-to-action and links.

Elements of a typical page »

Typical page image sizes »

Website design elements

Across all the available page types, established graphic standards apply. These standards are automatically assigned and applied to content by Sitecore and the site’s cascading style sheets (CSS).

View the design standards for: