The Ecosystem sites are designed to have consistent main navigation and a consistent footer across the platform. Consistency provides — especially to the primary audience of prospective students — unified UMass Amherst messaging through a cohesive brand experience.
It is Marcom’s responsibility to consider and prioritize the needs of each site while maintaining consistency across the platform. For this reason, editing of the main navigation and footer on Ecosystem sites is restricted to Marcom. Any deviation, therefore, must be the result of conversations between site owners and Marcom.
Main navigation menus are designed to create top-level categories of content to guide users into the deeper content they need. Your site may have a maximum of five main menu items to maintain clean, uncluttered design; allow sufficient white space; and create an effective experience on mobile browsers.
These menus should include:
- Academics
- Research
- About
Scrolling over these menus will provide visitors with drop-down mega-menus of primary and supplementary links to landing pages. Marcom suggests having no more than 10 primary and five optional supplementary links.
Footers in Ecosystem include contact information and pathways into content for other audiences beyond the primary audience of prospective students. Depending on the site, these audiences include current students, faculty and staff, alumni, prospective employees, industry partners, and press. Marcom will help communicators decide which of these audiences to specify in the footer navigation.