Establish an identity and use it consistently
Our viewers should know exactly who we are, and after linking should know if they're still within our website. This doesn't mean every page looks the same, but colors and graphics should be consistent throughout the website.
- Establish a theme or identifying characteristic for your website.
Use existing school colors/mascot as a theme. Create the school name in school colors
for a classy graphic. Free graphics are plentiful on the Web; a little searching can locate
school mascot pictures in appropriate colors. Alternatively,
there are hundreds of free graphics related to education and
specific subjects.
- Coordinate thematic elements.
Choose one or two main graphics (perhaps logo and background) and
add two or three graphics related to the main one.
For example, use a large colorful graphic of the school mascot
as the main identity (like a bucking bronco), all or
part of the mascot, suitably lightened for a background image
(horse's head), and items related to the mascot as sub-page graphics
(horsehoes, rope, saddle).
An educational main theme might be pencil,
notebook, and alphabet. The notebook or alphabet can be a
border or a background image on
main pages, with pencil or ABC images carried forward as icons
to sub-pages. Subject-specific teachers can use clipart, icons and backgrounds related to their
subjects to clearly identify the pages on their website.
- Use colors and graphics consistently throughout the website.
Design a homepage
template and 3 or 4 sub-page templates before you determine
content or navigation, Creating templates now may seem premature,
but establishing a consistent theme and identity through color and graphics
gives a professional look to your website and saves time later
on when templates are modified for navigation and content.
Establish an eye-catching combination of colors--your color
set--through background colors/graphics, with text and link
colors, and in navigation bars and elements. (Keep in mind
that dark backgrounds with light text will not be printable.)
Create an identifying graphic for each page. When displayed as
a group, your templates should clearly show consistency of
identity. Remember that flashy graphics won't help a poorly planned or inconsistently
applied theme.
- Re-establish the main site identity on subsites.
A large school or district website can be overwhelmed when each individual school, teacher, and department establishes a unique identity. Consequently, it is important for pages to coordinate with the main
website. Every homepage, whether teacher, school or
department, can use the same logo for a link back to the main homepage. Skillful design on
subsites can embellish and enhance the whole site's Web presence.
We can all have professional-looking websites by establishing a consistent theme. Does your identity carry through all your webpages?
|
Homepage