I know the importance of page titles for SEO and accessibility. The site I am designing for is a web application that is not publicly facing, so SEO is not a concern. The argument against accessibility is that it can be visibly hidden but still exist. I’m getting a request to remove the title from a certain page to bring a little more of a table above the fold. This particular page has breadcrumbs because it is the third step in a series and they argue that the breadcrumb takes the place of the page title. I disagree and feel that the title should be on every page (except the home page). I did think of a sort of compromise where the title could be smaller on some pages but for consistency, how do you decide which pages should get which page header style so it doesn’t look like a weird one off? Any suggestions?
I would need to see these pages to give you an informed opinion. Still, it seems like you’re suggesting that subsequent pages get the same-sized headline/title as the first page, which, to me, would tend to make every page look like the first page.
On the other hand, relying on breadcrumbs isn’t a great solution either since they’re purpose is navigation, not identification. Besides, they’re tiny.
Isn’t there a much smaller subsequent page headline/title that you could use consistently on all pages following the first page — something like…
Smaller headline goes here | Page 2
Once again, though, I haven’t seen the pages, so I could easily be misunderstanding what you wrote.
Thanks for writing back. All pages have the same site header which identifies the name of the site and has some basic menus like language, user account, etc. Then there is a side navigation which has all of the main pages a user can navigate to. Once on one of the main pages, depending on the page, the user can start doing things which may navigate them deeper into the layout (think grandchildren and great grandchildren pages). In this particular case, they are managing their stores. They click “manage stores” on the side nav which brings them to a list of their stores. Then they click on a store and it takes them to something like “Store Details” where they have a table with lots and lots of data about the store. “Store Details” has a breadcrumb on top to help them know how they got there (and to go back if needed). They can also navigate to a “Store prices page” where they can manage the prices of the products sold at that store if they differ from a default. The request is to take the title off of “Store Details” (and probably product prices when I get there) to give more room for the table above the fold. In reality, there is no way the entire table will fit above the fold anyway but for some reason they think this little extra will be beneficial. Now if I say OK and remove the title here, I feel I would need to remove the title from all grandchild pages but I’m not sure what the best practice really is. I’m inclined to think it should stay on all of the pages or maybe a compromise where it is made really small or something else I haven’t thought of. I feel like some kind of title should stay in case the user walks away or has multiple tabs open.