Consistent Web Page Design and Layout

Salt of the Web's Content Management System helps our hosting clients create consistent websites. Read why this is important below.

I enjoy browsing the internet, looking at website designs people have created. The internet is filled with some very creative and artistic site designs, some of which are very complex, others (like Google) are very minimalist.

One thing I often notice is that novice web designers tend to make web pages which are not consistent. The home page has a blue background, while the about page has a pink background. The home page has the title of the site at the top, while the contact page has a picture of the site's owner. The products page has a horizontal navigation bar at the top and bottom, while the support page has a vertical navigation bar, and the news page has a horizontal navigation bar, but only at the top.

It's easy to understand why people do this - there are a few reasons for it.

1. Often novice designers haven't figured out how to use include files or use style sheets to define a consistent layout.


2. Often novice desigers get excited about the possibilities, and use their site as a way of exploring new ways of doing things.


3. And many people just naturally make the assumption that if one page design is good, five page designs is five times as good.

It turns out, that idea isn't quite right. In fact, it really isn't even close to right. Let's look at some of the reasons why it's a good idea to have one single page layout that is consistently followed throughout your site.

1. One of the things people look for when browsing the internet is consistency. If the navigation bar is at the top of the home page, the visitor wants to find the navigation bar in exactly the same spot on every page visited.


2. Your page layout is your branding. It's what makes people recognize the site as yours. It's what lets them know they're still on your site. And even if it never rises to the level of conscious thought, it is comforting to the visitor to know (without even thinking) that he's still in the same site he was in three clicks ago. Every time your visitor lands on a page with a different layout, he has to stop and think "Am I still on Joe's site?" You don't want your visitors' browsing experience to be interrupted by that questioning.


3. You need to ask yourself what is most important about your site. Is it the graphic design? Or is it the content of the page? Hopefully you will say it's the content - unless you are a graphic designer, and your graphic design is your advertisement!
   
   Even though your content is most important, you still want your design to be eye catching. The first time your visitor arrives, you want him to think "What a nice looking site!". But then, once he's had that initial reaction, when he browses the site, or when he returns the next day, you don't want him to be distracted by that layout - you want him to focus on the content.
   
   Here's what happens: the first time your visitor sees your site, he thinks "What a nice design!", but as he browses the site, that attractive design should become background to what's really important. It should be as though your visitor is seeing it out of the corner of his eye, hardly even conscious that he's seeing it.
   
   But every page that has a different layout is like a slap in the face, drawing your visitor's attention out of the content, and back into the design.

If you are musically inclined, think of your layout as being like a bass guitar. You want to have the bass guitar in the mix - in some ways it is foundational to your piece of music. And you want people to be aware - at some level - that it's in there. But even so, it should rarely be the focus of attention. Every time you change your layout from one page to the next, it's like cranking the volume on the bass - it's like the bass player saying "LOOK AT ME!" while the vocalist is singing. It's disconcerting, and distracts from the beauty of the music.

Here's another way of looking at it. Page design is to a web programmer as the word "said" is to an author. Every time a book has dialogue, the word "said" appears over and over and over again. And you know what? The word is actually "transparent" - no one really notices that it's there (which means it isn't perceived as redundant, even though it occurs 20 times in 20 paragraphs). But novice authors think that they have to "dress it up". So instead of "said", the characters "whispered hoarsely" and "whined" and "uttered happily" and "sneered evilly". The problem is that none of these phrases are transparent, so each time they are used, they jerk the reader out of the flow of the dialogue. So it is with your web page. Let your page layout become transparent to the visitor.

With all this in mind, Salt Of The Web uses a content management system that makes it easy for you to have a consistent layout and design for your web pages.

Our content management system lets you define a "shell" (or "skin") for your website. The shell (we refer to it as the Page Layout) is all the information that is identical on each page. It includes information like the background color of the site, the width of each page, the page headers, the logo images, the navigation bar, and the page footer. All this information is stored separately from your actual page content. You know what this means?

1. Once you've created your Page Layout, you never have to look at it again, unless you want to change the appearance


2. If you do change the page layout, every page of your site changes automatically! You don't have to worry about whether your site is consistent, because we make sure of it for you!

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