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ITS WEB DEVELOPMENT POLICY
Web Development Office
April 18, 2006
June 18, 2007
The purpose of this policy is to insure that all CWU Web sites adhere to a
common look/feel (for branding and marketing purposes), use the appropriate
authoring language, insure equal access for the disabled and post only professional
appearing Web sites that reflect well upon the university.
- Compliance with the Graphic Standards manual.
As set forth by the Graphics Production Department:
This Graphic Standards Manual has been prepared to aid the CWU community in
building a consistent image that reflects the institution's mission, message and identity.
Input from faculty members, staff, students, administrators, alumni and outside
consultants led us to conclude that CWU could benefit from a more clearly defined
visual identity. The goal was to create an attractive, flexible and effective visual identity
that could be used for all university publications including print, electronic, video and
other emerging forms.
To most effectively tell Central Washington University's story to internal and external
audiences, it is important that official university publications have a common thread
and consistency and meet certain standards.
It is the policy of the ITS/ Web Development Office that all Web sites will adhere to the
Graphic Standards Manual. All pages will carry the CWU Web banner at the top of the page.
All pages will have the left-hand grey menu area and the page will be arranged in what is
commonly known as a "C" clamp design. See number 7 below for more specific
information.
- Authorized Web languages.
All CWU Web development will adhere to recommended reference specifications from the World
Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and their guidelines for authoring in developing web services. Web
development staff will avoid using proprietary markup tags, which have not been included in a
recommended reference specification from the W3C. The Web language of choice, at this point
in time, for the CWU Web site is transitional XHTML 1.0. This assures clean presentation, lends
itself to ADA compliance and lends itself to Web viewing on other intelligent agents.
- Equal access for the disabled (Federal Guideline 508 compliance).
It is the policy of the ITS that Central Washington University is dedicated to ensuring our sites are compliant with Section 508 regulations.
Section 508 was an amendment made to the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1998. This amendment
requires that Federal agencies' electronic and information technology is accessible to people with
disabilities. Find out more about Section 508 regulations.
- Supported Web authoring software.
Supported software at this time includes:
- Dreamweaver for Web editing
- Adobe PhotoShop for image editing
- Adobe Acrobat for PDF generation
- Simple Server for offline viewing of pages under development
- Other minor software packages, inquire with the Web Office
- Off campus domains.
For the purposes of security, back-up and disaster recovery, off campus domains are not encouraged.
- Web Office business model.
As the Web Office has no funding for Student Assistants, all students are self-support. The student
re-bill rate for departmental web maintenance and development is $15 per hour. Departments must request,
by e-mail, maintenance or development to be performed and acknowledge the student re-bill rate. Charge
credits are sent out the first day of the new month.
- Correct use of the approved CWU template - General Standards.
Primary considerations for all pages are:
- Consistent look and feel
- Simplicity, clarity, sharpness
- User ease
- List format rather than narrative verbiage wherever possible
- Consistent font throughout (Arial); sans serif for crisper look
- All pages throughout the site will have the Search Box at the far
right top of the screen. This box will always be on the same line as
the top menu links but can be either above or below the main page header on Level 2 pages.
- On Level 2 pages, there will always be the CWU Home link along with 5 other optional links that will be arranged horizontally at the top of the page. These links will be the main five links that display on the homepage by default but can be changed at the department level to correspond with their site.
- Photographs/visuals should be generally positioned in the center or off-center of the page in Level 1 and 2. Normally, main clickable links will be to the left of the visual unless the option for no left menu is chose.
- Level 1entry pages should be arresting and visually oriented. Narrative text is optional at this level. Generally throughout, for the sake of clarity and convenience of users, text should be primarily in bulleted or list form wherever possible.
- Home page picture size: 350px x 430px (so there is no scroll on the home page)
- All home pages should include contact information
- All pictures should have a resolution of 72px
- All images must include an alt tag in the html code with a description of the image (not a blank alt tag which validates)
- If departments choose to use buttons or images for navigation they must match CWU colors.
- Flash can be used as long as it is 508 compliant
- Each department web site should have a consistent look and feel throughout all pages
- All pages must but be validated with the W3C with the exception of flash
- Contact information in left hand bottom corner should be consistent through out site
- CWU banner that contains the title of the page may be removed if replaced with a banner or additional navigation for each department. However, this should be consistent through out the department site.
- UDM flyout menus are now allowed under supervision of professional web developers Please visit this link to veiw a list of standards for flyout menus.
Occasionally there will be an exception to the above policies, please contact the Web Office at ext. 2810 for special requests.
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