ACC Website Requirements and Recommendations Quick View
Requirements
- A “last modified time” stamp must appear at the bottom of each web page.
- The home page must include the name and e-mail address for the website manager or a designee who can respond to questions about the department or website.
- Departmental web pages must contain an ACC logo that follows the Logo Usage Guidelines and have at least one clearly marked link back to “ACC Home” at www.austincc.edu. (Though not required on faculty and staff web pages, these elements are recommended there as well.)
- Information must be as up-to-date as possible. The website manager is responsible for ensuring that time-sensitive information is reviewed regularly – no less than one each semester and more frequently if required.
- “Under construction” pages are not allowed. An acceptable alternative is a “Coming Soon” notice to promote upcoming content.
- Link forms and other content from the original source. Do not replicate on your pages.
- Keep confidential, security-based, or other sensitive information on the ACC intranet; don’t post to your “public pages.”
- Clearly label search functions as being just for your website. Also provide a link to the search function off “ACC Home.”
Recommendations
Website managers should consider the following when developing and maintaining a website
- Avoid unprompted animation, sound files, and other advanced applications that challenge browsers and bandwidth.
- Avoid frames whenever possible.
- Test each page on Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator, validation sites, and different modems and bandwidths.
- Avoid barriers in web pages that may cause difficulty for people with physical, visual, hearing, and/or cognitive/neurological disabilities.
- If you are using .pdf files or plug-ins, try to use standard plug-ins and make them available to the user as a link from your page. For instance, .pdf files should include an Adobe Acrobat link, audio and video files should have Real Player or Quick Time plug-ins, etc.
- If not using .html, avoid software-specific file formats for linked content (i.e., .doc, .xcl, .wpf)
- If your pages are using capabilities that require current browsers, e.g. java scripting, inform your user and offer an alternative.
- Test electronic forms for before going live.
- Frequently test links to non-ACC websites to ensure they remain up-to-date.
General Guidance:
Don't think about ACC's organizational structure or your own perspective when building
pages. Imagine your end-user (potential student, currently enrolled student, taxpayer) and
what they might want to know about your department at ACC. People want content and
interactivity. What processes can you streamline and automate using web tools?
Communications (e-mail), references, testing, applications, requests for information, and
so much more are possible these days. Think of your site as a retail store. The
"storefront" should invite people in. The store itself should be maintained with fresh
"product" (content). Archival information should be stored underneath the current
content. Keep in mind you can't control the end users' environment - their computer
skills, web literacy and hardware can range from very sophisticated to primitive. Keep
things simple, and promote ease of navigation.
Required:
1. The date of last review/update should be displayed on every page at the bottom.
2. Page manager names and email addresses should be easily available from every page.
When a person “owns” an ACC web directory leaves the College he/she is responsible
for notifying his/her supervisor and Internet Services. Notifying the supervisor includes
giving that person the directory name and password. Notifying Internet Services includes
the directory name and the name of the supervisor. Internet Services will list the
supervisor as the page owner until that person notifies them of who the page has been
assigned to.
3. Page managers should maintain their web pages. Departments and offices creating
official pages are responsible for the timely updating of text and images contained on
those pages. Out-of-date content is worse than no content. Review time sensitive pages
such as calendars and information based on semesters to ensure that your information is
accurate. Most ACC information should be reviewed at least once a semester or on an
annual basis to ensure accuracy and currency. ACC staff and faculty should monitor the
ACC web site and as a courtesy, notify page owners when pages need updating.
4. Whenever possible, link to existing content on other pages/sites on the ACC website
rather than replicating content. Linking to existing information rather than replicating it
reduces duplication of effort and ensures consistency and accuracy. However these links
must be maintained. If you have content that other pages link to and you move your
content/page elsewhere, indicate the new url on the old page.
5. In using the ACC logo, colors, fonts, and other graphic elements, page authors should
follow usage guidelines found at here. ACC Home Page and Tiers 2 and 3: the College
logo, page templates, colors, backgrounds, and other graphic devices should be used
consistently through the first three levels of the site. For instance, the ACC logo should
be used on all tier 2 and 3 pages as a hotlink back to the homepage. Fonts and colors
should also be used consistently. In addition, all tier 2 pages should have the standard
boilerplate (text links, copyright contact, name of college, etc.) at the bottom, along with
a text link back to the ACC Homepage. However, in the interests of creativity and
individual academic pursuits, levels below the third tier (i.e. individual faculty pages) can
have less formal structure. All Pages: The ACC logo should not be stretched, rendered in
any other than its accepted color scheme, used as wallpaper, or scaled down to an
unacceptable size. Use the logo files found at Marketing and College Relations Logo
Files download page. Using the name of the college as a wallpaper is also prohibited.
6. Always include a link to "ACC Home" (http://www.austincc.edu/) on the top page of
every directory. In general, the term “home” should be avoided. “ACC Home” should
link to http://www.austincc.edu . Links to departmental front pages should reference
those pages as “Student Services Home” or “EVP-Admin Home” rather than “home.”
Every page should have a way out either to ACC Home, a Departmental Home page, or
some other upper level tier on the ACC website.
7. No pages should be "under construction." Until you have content, don’t show it. It’s a
teaser that leaves the viewer unsatisfied. An acceptable alternative is to promote
upcoming content (“Coming Soon”) to encourage people to come back later.
8. Keep confidential, security-based, or other sensitive information on the ACC intranet;
don't post to your "public pages." Remember that external sites can be seen by millions of
people. Don’t put links on public pages to “internal” information that is sensitive,
confidential, or potentially confusing. For instance, the working copy of the course
schedule is for staff and faculty use, linking to it off a publicly accessed department page
can leave students confused and planning their schedules on what is fluid information.
9. If you use a "Search" function on your web page(s), make sure it is clearly labeled as
being just for your page(s) and not all of ACC's website. Also include a link to the Search
function off the ACC homepage that searches the entire site. In this way, people can find
information on your web pages as well as related information on other pages on the ACC
site.
10. Posting Lengthy Documents to the Web - Set of guidelines that instruct faculty and
staff with procedures for posting lengthy documents, PDF's and other files to the web.
Lengthy Documents Microsoft Word - 30KB
Recommended:
1. Be kind to modem users; avoid unprompted animation, sound files and other advanced
applications that challenge browsers and bandwidth. These can freeze up a computer and
prevent users from viewing content you really want them to see. Keep your files small,
no longer than two or three screens or larger than 50KB. Avoid large graphics and use
interlaced GIFs and optimized graphics to achieve this size limitation. Try splitting up a
larger file into a menu of items and files, with links within each file to one or more of the
other files. Content should have a logical hierarchy that can be expressed in menu form
whenever possible. Not all end-users appreciate unsolicited audio clips. If you want to
use a file like this, offer it as an option to the user. The same is true for animation,
though entertaining , animated GIFs have the potential of slowing down data
transmission. Keep them to a minimum and make sure to time them off quickly.
2. Avoid frames whenever possible. Frames frequently have trouble being printed.
Research also suggests people prefer clicking to scrolling. Table are a good alternative
for organizing your pages. You can also use multiple-level menus, and other
navigational means to move people through your site.
3. Test your page on Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator, validation sites, and
different modems and bandwidths. If you want to create cross-platform HTML and
remove proprietary browser tricks form your site, you can validate your HTML with the
W3C’s HTML validator at http://validator.w3.org . The W3C validator is free to use and
always up to date. To be fully W3C compliant you must put this line at the top of your
page in the HTML code:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN”
http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd>
Then open validator.w3.org , enter the URL of your page and hit Return. Almost
instantly, you’ll get a list of all the HTML errors on your page, with a link to a standard
explanation for each.
4. Avoid barriers in web pages that may cause difficulty for people with physical, visual,
hearing, and/or cognitive/neurological disabilities. New federal regulations mandate that
many web sites be accessible for the disabled. While ACC is not legal mandated to meet
Federal guidelines regarding web site accessibility, ACC encourages all page authors to
assist people with physical, visual, hearing, and/or cognitive/neurological disabilities in
accessing ACC web pages. Common accessibility problems that occur on web pages
include: images without alt tags, lack of alt tags for image map hotspots, misleading use
of structural elements of pages, uncaptioned audio or undescribed video, lack of
alternative information for users that cannot access frames or scripts, tables that are too
difficult to decipher when linearized, and sites with poor color contrast. For more
information consult http://webxact.watchfire.com//.
5. Avoid backgrounds that clash with your content, i.e. textured backgrounds that detract from the readability of your site. Neutral backgrounds or light shades of color detract the least.
6. For levels below tier 3, page designers are encouraged to include an ACC identifier
(i.e., ACC logo, "ACC," or "Austin Community College") to assist users in navigating
the ACC web site.
7. Useful tips on links. It is acceptable to create menus to indicate lower tier content
while linking only the title for the next lower tier, thus moving the user to a
comprehensive set of links. Encourage links between different hierarchies.
8. Accepted standards of grammar, punctuation, spelling, and other language mechanics
apply. (Spell check your pages before posting!)
9. If you are using .pdf files or plug-ins, try to use standard plug-ins and make them
available to the user as a link from your page. For instance, .pdf files should include an
Adobe Acrobat link, audio and video files should have Real Player or Quick Time plug-
ins, etc.
10. If not using .html, avoid software specific file formats for linked content (i.e., .doc,
.xcl, .wpf). these formats have greater risk of virus contamination, create software
compatibility problems and may be difficult to print. Instead use .pdf , .rtf, . or .txt
formats.
11. If your pages are using capabilities that require current browsers, e.g. java scripting,
inform your user and offer an alternative.
12. Forms: If you are using online forms, test them before going live. Users don't like
forms that don't work.
13. If you are linking your page to other non-ACC web sites, keep these links up to date.
One way to avoid having your users lose their place on your site is to have external links
open in a new browser window.
