About Unity

Quick-Start templates are a great option for schools interested in launching a site on an accelerated timeline or for schools who are unable to commit resources to a full-scale Web design project. This guide will help you select the template that best fits your school’s brand and online communication goals.

All quick-start templates are built with onMessage’s responsive Web design (RWD) functionality, enabling the school’s site to scale and reposition for optimal display on each user’s device. The general explanation for how this works is that design elements such as photos or main navigation shrink proportionally from the full width of a large desktop monitor to an iPad display. On devices smaller than an iPad, continually shrinking features would render them too small to read or click, so the system switches from scaling to repositioning.

The repositioning prioritizes elements from top to bottom, left to right, so a full-size design with a logo in the uppermost left corner will feature this graphic at the very top on the phone display. Media query settings in the CSS code are also used to control where items display at various screen sizes. Due in part to these settings, changes to quick-start templates in the design process are limited to logos, colors and fonts, and any requests for structural modifications may incur additional charges.

The Unity Template

Delivers an organized message using vertical sections to present information that combine into one integrated visual.

Things to Think About

Photos are the centerpiece of the design, and as such professional quality, landscape-style images are a necessity. Keep in mind the viewable area of the home page images may vary depending on the user’s device and screen resolution.
The design works best with a horizontal logo; a vertical logo will increase the menu area height, thus pushing the photo window and the content band further down.
What information would your school display in the two bottom bands? It’s better to pick a theme that works with the school’s content than to fit the content to the design, as this is a recipe for a fresh, engaging site.
Depending on the user’s device and screen resolution, vertical scrolling may be needed to see all information on the home page.

Blackbaud University

6 Bedford Farms Drive
Bedford NH 03113
Phone: 603-669-5979