Menus

Site Builders can move, edit, and delete menu items on Open Berkeley sites. Menus on Open Berkeley sites include the following:

Main menu (primary navigation)

The main menu (also commonly referred to as "primary navigation") is under the Berkeley wordmark and site name, and above the main content of all pages. The general recommendation (from a usability perspective, and for optimal display) is to keep the number of menu items in the main menu to around 7 items or fewer, and menu link titles should be succinct. For more information, see Add/Move Content in the Main Menu and Re-order and Manage Menu Items. See Figure 1, below.

Figure 1
Screenshot of a highlighted main menu of a typical Open Berkeley site

Secondary menu

The secondary menu is an optional menu in the blue bar across the top of the site, next to the search box. The general recommendation (from a usability perspective, and for optimal display), the number of items in the secondary navigation should be kept to 3 items or fewer. If you need to feature additional items in the secondary navigation, consider using the "Quick Links" option instead (see below for more details). For more information, see Re-order and Manage Menu Items. See Figure 2, below.

Figure 2
Screenshot of a highlighted secondary menu on a typical Open Berkeley site

Footer menu

The footer menu is an optional menu option in the footer region of the site. The general recommendation (from a usability perspective, and for optimal display) is to keep the number of menu items in the footer menu to fewer than 7 items. For more information, see Re-order and Manage Menu Items. See Figure 3, below.

Figure 3
Screenshot of a highlighted footer menu on a typical Open Berkeley site

Quick Links

The Quick Links menu is an optional menu that will show up in the Secondary Menu region, and pops open a list of links upon activation. For more information, see Use QuickLinks Menu. See Figure 4, below.

Figure 4
Screenshot of a highlighted quick links menu on a typical Open Berkeley site

Internal vs. external links in the main menu

Your primary navigation (the main menu across the top of the screen, underneath the site name/banner, plus any child pages) should ONLY contain internal links. From a general usability and accessibility perspective, external links in menus can cause confusion for visitors to your website. If you need to draw attention to an external link, create an internal page first with some text that includes the external link, and then add that internal page to your menu.

Menu link titles

When you give your page a "title" within a menu (how the text displays in the menu; see Add/Move Content in the Main Menu), it's important to not have multiple menu link titles that have the same text, but go to different places (even if the menu link titles reside within different menus). 

This is important for accessibility. If there are two duplicate menu link titles that go to two different pages, this will likely cause confusion for screen reader users and users with certain cognitive disabilities (see Add Links). 

For example: Let's say you have three top-level items in your main menu (primary navigation). One is called "Apples," one is called "Bananas," and the other is called "Oranges." If you have separate "About" pages that will reside in each of these sections of your site, do not give these pages the same "About" link title in each menu. Instead, have the link titles be "About Apples," "About Bananas," and "About Oranges."

How to configure menus