The way the UMass Boston pages are designed

The UMass Boston Web Services department maintains the pages found immediately under the server name www.umb.edu. The department intends for the site to acccessible and usable to the broadest range of people. If you encounter a particular problem or have other comments, please feel free to contact the department at webmaster@umb.edu.

Basic Page Design

The UMB site is based upon one common template. As there are about 9,000 active pages on the site, some pages may be connected to an older template that varies somewhat from the description below.

Layout of current template

• These links will not appear in most browsers using style sheets as they are set to appear as white text showing on a white background.
  • The first link skips to the main content of the page.
  • The second links to a non-table layout of the page being viewed. This is intended as an option for people using browsers that linearize tables.
• The next four links appear as blue text separated by a yellow bar.
  • The home link goes to the UMass Boston home page.
  • The help link leads to a page with tips about using the Web site.
  • The search link goes to the main search page.
  • The print link returns a only the main content of the page being viewed set in a one-row, one-column table that is 580 pixels wide, a width that should fit standard letter-size paper.

Below these links, aligned to the left is the UMass Boston informal logo. It is a white, scripted "U" superimposed on a block "M" that features two colors, a teal (hex 009999) and dark blue (hex 003399).

Below the logo, left aligned, are a series of text links on one line. Each link is a link to a main sections of the Web site. This line is repeated at page bottom.

Below this navigation line is a location bar. Moving from left to right is a representation of how far down in the Web site someone is at the time. The layers are separated by an icon with an alt attribute of ":" and an appearance like a triangle pointing right.

Below the location bar is either a two-column, one-row page-layout table or a three column, one-row layout table. The first column features the "menu" of the page. This menu is a list of related links. Each link is preceded by an icon identifying it as a page, folder or server. A page icon indicates a page at the same level and no change in the menu from one page to the next. A folder indicates another section of the UMB site and a change in the menu. a server icon indicates a link to a different server.

The next column of the page is the "content" section.

In our three column layout, the far-right column is used as a highlights column or other purpose to provide brief items of importance.

Below the table is a footer featuring the main contact information for UMass Boston.

Below the footer, left aligned, is the series of text links repeated from the top.

Below the text links, official pages of the UMB Web site are identified with the following: "This official page of the University of Massachusetts Boston was last modified: " with the appropriate date inserted.

Below this line is a legend indicating the meaning of the menu icons described above.

UMass Boston Home page