Specific Design Issues

Departmental Identity. Although CED wants to promote a stronger, more cohesive identity, there is validity to having different looks and feels for each of the departments. The departments are the home “pods” for the students; they administer the degree programs, support the people connected to those programs, and nurture a sense of identity and community.

Connection to UC Berkeley. One of CED’s strengths is its connection to UC Berkeley. This should be made clear in some facet of the overall design, whether through imagery, color, or hypertext links.

Wurster Hall. Wurster Hall is part of CED’s identity, and designs may evoke it in some way, whether in color palette or other design feature.

Information Visualization. Designers are encouraged to explore different graphical ways to represent the navigation and other site information.

Change in Scale. Because the college deals with environmental design at all scales of place-making—building, site, neighborhood, community, and region—some capacity to explore change-of- scale could be part of the design.

Color. The designers can and should use color to represent the diversity of student population, ideas/creativity, and strength of education at CED, bearing in mind that a strong color palette can make the site vibrant and modern but could also cross over into a “new,” juvenile, or garish look. The colors of Wurster Hall—gray, yellow, black, white—could be explored as a way of signifying the strong connection many in the CED community feel to the building.

Imagery. It is important to blend pictures of people, places/spaces, and design work to represent all students at CED (not just designers). Images should be large enough for easy viewing on a computer and should not conflict with the text. As with color, Wurster Hall might be evoked through images.

"Look and Feel"

The following is a list of qualities that CED views positively regarding the "look and feel" of the design:

• dignity, elegance, sophistication
• simplicity in visual design and functionality
• relationship between web presence and brick-and-mortar presence
• weight, authority, established school identity
• bold with colors and photos
• shows that CED is secure in its identity, reflects CED’s philosophy
• welcoming, engaging
• professional
• cutting-edge, smart and contemporary
  
  

Recommendations

The following is a list of decisions that have been made regarding the website:

• no Flash-only pages, although Flash can be used sparingly
• no splash pages
• no right-hand navigation
• pop-up submenus must either have dedicated space or must not obscureother menus when open
• pop-up submenus must not have a timed fade-out but must stay up until the user moves the mouse away
• all pages must print cleanly
• no frames
• pages must be "bookmarkable"
• no unreasonable scrolling, no scrolling in small boxes
• keep main content “above-the-fold” so users don’t have to scroll down
• space for navigational breadcrumbs on second- and lower-level pages
• logo in top left corner, link to CED home page
  
• “College of Environmental Design” and “University of California Berkeley” [sic—no comma] prominent on home page and visible throughout site
• minimize use of the color red
• don’t have the site “hijack” the browser (change pointer to cross-hairs, expand to fill screen, etc.)
• colors must be printable in black & white
• text sizes must be easily readable
• must be quick-loading
• vertical formats can be annoying when mouse doesn’t have roller ball and up/down arrows
   

If the designers feel there is strong justification for changing a particular item, we will consider it.

Standalone Websites of Units Within CED

Many units within CED (research and student groups, archives and libraries, student advisors, etc.) develop their own standalone websites. It is important for standalone sites that users understand they are navigating outside the CED website. Therefore, the design of these sites must evoke the CED website without replicating it. Guidelines for standalone sites include:

• CED logo in top left corner of site
• CED logo serves as link to the CED website (www.ced.berkeley.edu)
• include constant link (such as in footer) to the main UC Berkeley website (www.berkeley.edu)
• for design unity, use colors of CED website and graphic elements such as the black/gold bars and grey left navigation panel
• however, do not use black/gold bars for navigational headings (too similar to design of the CED website)
• if a left navigation panel is used, use same width dimensions as on the main CED site and line up right edge of logo with nav panel border