Page Stamps

Last Updated 09.28.03

General Description

A page stamp provides view-only information about the user's account, the page, or a section of a page. Examples of page stamps include: User login ID, last update date, and space available. Page stamps consist of a label and one or two view-only data fields.

Guideline Attributes

Spec Version # - 3.1
Spec Contributors - Betsy Beier, Mervyn Dennehy, Lisa Serface
UI Models - all models
Example Products - all products
Related Guidelines - Key Notation, Abbreviations Guideline, Tables, Icons, Language in UI, Component Order, Common Formats, Contextual Information

Interaction and Usage Specifications

General Principles

Page stamps are used to display view-only data that may be persistent from one page to another.
Page stamps are not necessarily dependent on the current selection.
Page stamps can be placed in the following locations:
- The login stamp location in the upper right below the tab bar
- Left-aligned below the page title and any associated instruction text
- Left-aligned below subheaders and any associated instruction text
- The footnote location in the lower left above the ski
To avoid clutter, a page may feature page stamps in no more than three of these locations
A page stamp may not be needed if the related data is concatenated into the page title. For example, if the page title includes a customer name, then there is no need for a page stamp with the customer name.

Types of Page Stamps

There are two types of page stamps. Each type is displayed in a different location on the page:

User login and connection information, :
- User Name Marsha Briggs
- Logged In As mbriggs
- Connected As SYS
- Logged In/Connected As mbriggs/SYS
Status or Task-related information, such as:
- 22-Oct-2001 [current date without label]
- 22-Oct-2001 10:15 AM [current date and time without label; timezone can optionally be added here, too]
- Last Updated 25-Oct-2001
- Last Refreshed 08-Oct-2001
- [object] Created 04-Oct-2001
- Status Approved
- Space Remaining 8 MB
- Budget Remaining $12,750
- Days to Quarter End 25
- Sales Target $65,000,000
- Customer Joseph Chao

Note: Date/time, currency, and numeric formats vary depending on locale settings, and follow standard Java formats as described in the Common Formats guideline.

Example of Page Stamp: Login Information and Page-Level Stamp

Placement of Page Stamps

The placement of the page stamp depends on the type of page stamp and its importance to the user's task:

User login and connection information - one or two page stamps may be placed in the upper right (left for bidirectional translated application)
Status and task-related information may be placed in different locations depending on context:
- Page-level status/task information - applicable to the entire page:
  - Primary information (if important for the user's task) - multiple page stamps may be placed under the page title immediately above any key notation.
  - Ancillary information (if NOT important to the user's task) - a single page stamp may be placed as a footnote at the bottom of the page, left aligned above the ski.
- Section-level status/task information - information that is only applicable to the current section:
  - Multiple page stamps may be placed under a section header, immediately above any key notation.

When page stamps are placed below the page title, they appear opposite repeating Action/Navigation buttons, which are right-aligned. See Action Navigation Buttons for the Entire Page for details.

For details on placement of page stamps in relation to other page elements see the Component Order guideline.

Setting Limits on Page Stamps

To avoid cluttering the page, it is recommended to keep page stamps to a minimum -- up to 3 or 4 per page. The following rules help set these limits:

Do not exceed more than three page stamp locations per page, including the login stamp location, below headers and subheaders, and the footnote location. For example, if there are page stamps in the login stamp location and below the header, then page stamps can be added to only one other location -- either below another header or subheader or in the footnote location.
Limits to numbers of page stamps vary depending on location:
- No more than two page stamps in the login stamp location. To reduce usage of vertical space it is recommended to concatenate the page stamps if this does not affect usability for the target audience, such as
  Logged In As/Connected As mbriggs/SYS
- No more than three page stamps below a header or subheader
- When a header or subheader also features key notation, the combined total of page stamps and keys should not exceed five entries.
- No more than one page stamp in the footnote location

Page Stamps vs. Contextual Information

Both page stamps and contextual information can be used to display view-only data. As a general rule of thumb, consider using page stamps instead of contextual information when the number of label/data pairs does not exceed three per page.

The following table shows key differences between these two page elements:

Attribute	Page Stamps	Contextual Information
Function	Display view-only data that is not necessarily linked to any process or task	Displays view-only data to remind users of selections made on one or more prior pages in a process
Scope	Applicable to the entire page, or a section of the page	Applicable to the entire page
Location	Multiple locations on the page, including below the page title	Below the page title only
Format	Regular blue text for labels and bold blue text for data	Regular black text for labels and bold black text for data (standard label/data formatting)
Recommended number per page	Up to three label/data pairs below a header or subheader (use as needed)	Three to four label/data pairs (avoid unless specifically required)
Layout	Labels left-aligned in a single column	Labels right-aligned in one or two columns

Visual Specifications

Contents of Page Stamps

Page Stamp label text
- font size = 10pt css
- font style = regular
- font color = dark blue; #336699
Page Stamp data text
- font size = 10pt css
- font style = bold
- font color = dark blue; #336699

Page Stamp Configurations

It is recommended not to exceed three to four page stamps per page, spread throughout the page in any of the following configurations:

Login stamp location (one or two fields)	Below page title (up to three fields)	Below subheader (up to three fields)	Footnote location (one field)
yes	yes	no	yes
yes	yes	one subhead only	no
yes	no	two subheads only	no
no	yes	two subheads only	no
no	yes	one subhead only	yes
no	no	two subheads only	yes
In two or less of these locations

Page Stamp Locations

Page Stamps

General Description

Guideline Attributes

Interaction and Usage Specifications

Visual Specifications

Open/Closed Issues

Open Issues

Closed Issues