UCSF School of Pharmacy

Breadcrumb Navigation

Just below the UCSF banner, we use breadcrumb navigation which shows the location of the page you're viewing relative to the UCSF home page.

Breadcrumb navigation is also commonly known as "breadcrumbs" and is so named because it provides a trail of clicks someone can follow to find a Web page, much like dropping breadcrumbs through a forest provides a trail from a known starting location.

Structural Breadcrumbs versus Tracking Breadcrumbs

Do not confuse our structural breadcrumbs with tracking breadcrumbs -- a trail that tracks users' movements throughout a Web site. That kind of navigation appears similar to the eye, but it is a different kind of breadcrumbs trail which shows progress through a site from click to click. (For an example of tracking breadcrumbs, visit QuirksMode and click on at least 3 different pages in the site.)

In contrast, our structural breadcrumbs shows the location of a page in the structure, and in cases where we link from deep within one branch of the site to a different major branch within the site, the breadcrumbs can change significantly with just one click. Tracking breadcrumbs are far less common and useful primarily in very specific kinds of sites, particularly those that require sophisticated audience tracking. Many newer Web browsers include a history of visited links, which is one method of the same kind of tracking.

Structural breadcrumbs enable visitors to easily jump to any higher node in the site structure. And, when visitors have a printout from our site, they have a clear method of finding the page again.

How to Set Up Structural Breadcrumbs

The School of Pharmacy Webmaster can work with you to set up structural breadcrumb navigation for your site. When you use our templates, it appears automatically -- you do not need to write code for it. If at a later date your directory structure changes, you must coordinate your changes going live with the Webmaster to ensure the structural breadcrumb navigation works properly.

Go To: Navigation Design or Style Guide