Mockup: Layout, Design, Templates

Design Items to Keep in Mind When Thinking About Your Site

By CMN Staff

Published: Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Updated: Monday, November 9, 2009

Here are some things to consider when talking to your staff about your updating your site design. Please note these items when building your mockup and design notes:

- Masthead (standard width is 975 pixels to span entire site, height is adjustable)

- Color scheme

- Background color

- Font and font sizes

- Type of navigation (horizontal or vertical?) and look and feel

- Bottom navigation and links to include

- Important elements to consider: Search bar, login/register links, Image gallery, Tab box, Poll, Most Commented/Most Popular, Video player, Print Edition PDF

- Local ads (sizes are 468x60, 300x250 and 160x600)

- Subscribe to email edition or register for breaking news (somewhere above fold)

- Custom pages you would like (about us, advertising, contact us, classifieds, etc)

- Social media tools (embeds and links to RSS, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, etc. Please include URLs to the social media links you would like included on your site)

Also, keep in mind what you want the borders or "wrappers" for all of the elements on your Site: rounded, thick, thin, background color, etc..

Here are some fun designs to check out of schools that have transitioned to CP5:

Arizona Daily Wildcat - http://wildcat.arizona.edu/

Ohio State Daily Lantern - http://www.thelantern.com/

LSU Daily Reveille - http://www.lsureveille.com/

Daily Nebraskan - http://www.dailynebraskan.com/

Oregon State Daily Emerald - http://www.dailyemerald.com/

Daily Texan - http://www.dailytexanonline.com/

University of Houston - Daily Cougar - http://www.thedailycougar.com/

Tufts Daily - http://www.tuftsdaily.com/

The Diamondback - http://www.diamondbackonline.com/

SU Spectator - http://www.su-spectator.com/

The Daily Gamecock - http://www.dailygamecock.com/

Brown Daily Herlad - http://www.browndailyherald.com/

Rutgers Daily Targum - http://www.dailytargum.com/

Daily 49er Long Beach - http://www.daily49er.com/

Daily Utah Chronicle - http://www.dailyutahchronicle.com/

The Technician - http://www.technicianonline.com/

The Daily Athenaeum - www.thedaonline.com

The News Record - http://www.newsrecord.org

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