Front Page Fitness: Using Jump Buttons

Just like a newspaper (they still print those, in case you forgot), a Groupsite has a front page. In newspaper jargon the "top of the fold" is where the most important stories and headlines go. That's what people see when it's sitting on the newsstand.


When designing and updating the front page of your Groupsite (the SUMMARY page), you want to quickly highlight the most important things. However, you have limited room "above the fold" in a normal size browser window and without scrolling.


One of the best ways to do this is to create "jump buttons."


Here's how.


1. Create a wide "Freeform Text" content module (here's a post on how to create/edit modules).


2. Create your "buttons" in a program as simple as Powerpoint or as complex as Photoshop. Save each button as an image which you will upload and embed into the Freeform Text module (here is a video on how to embed images).


Interested in some examples of how this can look?


Here's a nice, clean (yet easy-to-create-using-Powerpoint) set of jump buttons that the ABA uses on the SUMMARY page of one of their Groupsites:



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Here's a more elaborate (takes some design skill) set of jump buttons from The Car Guy Club:



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And for those that have crazy-good design skills, here's an example of how great jump buttons can be created, from the Groupsite of our friends at Examiner.com


 



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If you happen to have someone on staff who's an HTML guru, they can always design these buttons using HTML and simply paste the code using the HTML tab in our WYSIWYG editor. (If you don't know what this means, don't try it Smile).


3. Finally, you need to "hyperlink" the jump button images to the web address (URL) of their respective landing pages - the pages to which you want them to jump (here's a post on how to use hyperlinks).


One very effective use for jump buttons is to hyperlink them to the URLs of "More" pages you have created in your Groupsite (here's a post about "More" pages).


Remember: Not everything can be the most important. Highlight only those elements of your Groupsite that matters most.


 

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