Web Policies

Auburn University
College of Liberal Arts
CLA Web Committee

May 2, 2003

Version 1.0

Web Publishing Policies

1. Introduction
The Auburn University College of Liberal Arts (CLA) recognizes that the web is an important electronic publication medium that facilitates its mission of teaching, research and outreach. It is in the interest of the College of Liberal Arts that along with the college’s web site, that the various web sites maintained at the department level provide high quality information about the college's educational offerings, mission, programs and events to the college community, prospective students, and the general public, and to serve as a gateway to college services and teaching and learning resources.

The College web site is the College of Liberal Art’s publication of widest reach. It plays a vital role in promoting and maintaining the image and reputation of the college. The Web Publishing Policies are intended to promote accuracy, usability, accessibility, consistency and professionalism on both the college web site and those of the departments; it is not intended to mandate a certain design or look for all the web sites in the College of Liberal Arts. The Policies should ensure that information published online adheres to the same high standards as other official College publications.

CLA acknowledges that the web is a rapidly changing medium and that this policy statement will be subject to frequent review and modification.

2. Web Development Responsibilities
The following defines and delineates the three areas of responsibilities that will be instituted with the Web Publishing Policies.

2.1. Content Providers
Administrative departments, academic units, individual faculty and staff, and student and college organizations may contribute content on the College and department web sites. Content Providers, in effect, own the content of a given page and are responsible for its accuracy. Content Providers should have firsthand knowledge of a particular page’s content. Though they need not have specialized web publishing knowledge, familiarity with web writing guidelines, as discussed in Jacob Nielsen’s Designing Web Usability, Chapter 3, is very useful because text online is read differently than printed text and thus needs to be written differently. All pages should include the Content Provider’s e-mail address on the bottom of the page, along with the date that the page was last updated so that interested readers can get in touch with the content expert.

2.2. Content Editors
Content Editors designated at the department level act as a collection point for Content Providers. Content Editors are trained to update existing templates through the use of web editors such as Contribute. It would be very helpful for Content Editors to be knowledgeable in the elements of good web design, but not necessary. Content Editors may be administrative staff, faculty, or students. They will receive training and documentation in the web editor application.

2.3. CLA Web Team
The CLA Web Team will be appointed by the Associate Dean of Research and will consist of two IT staff members and 2-3 faculty members. Its responsibilities are assisting with the development of templates, approving templates and making them available to departments, and adjusting the Web Publishing Policies according to future developments in the realm of the web. Members of the CLA Web Team will be responsible in helping Content Editors and Content Providers, and in monitoring the College and department web sites to ensure the accuracy and timeliness of the published information. In addition, the CLA Web Team will ask for advice from document and graphic design experts when necessary.

3. Definitions of and Requirements for Web Pages
Because of the fluid nature of the web and the ease from which a user can move from one site to another, it is important to define different types of web sites within the College and the requirements that go along with these types.

3.1. Official versus Unofficial Pages
Web pages and sites published by the College, departments, and related College organizations are considered official College pages. These contain information pertaining to college programs, services, core institutional functions, and officially recognized student organizations.

Sites and pages, written and published by individual faculty, students, or staff members, are considered unofficial College pages. These pages may be linked from official College sites, but they are understood to represent the perspective of an individual or group rather than the College as a whole.

Note: “Official” and “unofficial” are not evaluative terms but merely a way to separate institutional web sites from personal web sites. These terms are only used in the context of this web revision process and the Web Publishing Policies.

3.2. Requirements for Official Sites and Pages
All pages published on the College and department web sites must comply with existing CLA policies, and any applicable local, state or federal laws including, but not limited to, libel, obscenity, copyright, and accessibility. In the event the CLA Web Team finds web content that is out of date, inaccurate, or otherwise in violation of the Web Publishing Policies, the Content Provider will be notified, so that he/she has time to revise the content in question. If such a revision does not occur within one month, the CLA Web Team will inform the Chair or Head of this department and the Dean of this situation and will remove any such pages.

All official sites are required to use standard templates suggested and/or approved by the CLA Web Team. The templates are designed to promote consistency, facilitate navigation, clarify the organizational structure, and present a collegiate and professional image on the web.

All College entities desiring to publish official pages are required to designate at least one Content Editor who along with the Content Providers is responsible for monitoring and maintaining the information posted on the web in order to ensure that it remains accurate and up-to-date.

3.3. Suggestions for Unofficial Sites and Pages
The College is not responsible for developing, monitoring, or maintaining pages published by individual faculty, students, or staff members. Ideally, all unofficial sites and pages will also comply with existing CLA policies, and any applicable local, state or federal laws including, but not limited to, libel, obscenity, copyright and accessibility.

In addition, a link to the College's standard disclaimer, or else the provision of a disclaimer statement of their own is suggested. If used, custom disclaimers should include the following three types of statements: 1) the page is not an official page or publication of Auburn University or the College of Liberal Arts; 2) the College does not maintain or monitor the information contained on the site and is not responsible for its content; and 3) the views and opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not represent official positions or policies of Auburn University or the College of Liberal Arts.

4. Purpose, Procedures, and Requirements for Web Site Templates

The following explains the purpose in using templates for the College and department web sites and the requirements that need to be followed in order to develop successful templates and web sites.

4.1. The Purposes for Using Templates

The purposes for using templates are several. First, from a maintenance perspective, changes to pages on a site constructed with templates are accomplished in much less time. For example, revised content should display a copyright extension to include the most recent year, i.e. ©2002-2003 The College of Liberal Arts of Auburn University. Suppose that revised content is added in the year 2004. The copyright notice should also be revised. This operation could be performed by editing the corresponding template. The change is then made automatically to all pages using the edited template.

Templates also allow Content Editors to add content directly to the editable regions of pages for which they are responsible. This process gives the Content Editor direct control over the placement of time-sensitive text and images into editable regions without the risk of inadvertently modifying the look of the entire page.

Templates are also the structural element that helps provide the user with a consistent look and feel, making it easier for the user to navigate the site and to find the desired information.

4.2. Use of Templates

All templates developed by the College will be available for the departments to use on an as is basis. The College also offers to departments the option of modified or custom templates developed by College staff. Departments are strongly encouraged to design and submit their own templates or suggest a template design that reflects the current department look or a new look that the department has agreed on.

4.3. Template Approval Process

Entities of the College desiring to have templates prepared internally or by a third party must submit these templates to the CLA Web Team for review and recommendation for approval. The CLA Web Team will provide approval or indicate needed revisions within two weeks. If a submitted template is in need of revision, the CLA Web Team will help modify the suggested template to make it usable and accessible. This process is not meant to stifle creativity but to ensure that the overarching goals of web usability and accessibility are met.

4.4. Appeals
Approval or disapproval of templates by the CLA Web Team may be appealed to the Associate Dean of Research.

4.5. Elements of Good Template Design

The following topics address generally accepted principles of good template design. This is not an exhaustive listing. It is meant to suggest certain minimum requirements.

Display Size
Use a “liquid” table design allowing the page to adjust automatically to the resolution of the user’s monitor or that of the user’s browser window. This technique provides the user with acceptable page layout no matter the display technology the user might employ.

Readability
Low profile headers allow as much content as possible to be displayed without the user being required to scroll downward to view the remaining content.

Templates should consider appropriate contrast of text color on background color. Large amounts of text should be designed for black text on a white background.

Style sheets that do not limit the user in changing the text size make pages more comfortable for users with vision limitations. Style sheet use is also encouraged as a method for separating content from style, allowing easier revision of both page elements.

Footers should contain contact information about the Content Provider of each page.

All pages should contain a date created, contact information, and copyright information.

Navigation

Navigational elements at the header-level should provide relevant links consistently across the site, with some elements of navigation being consistent across all of the College and department sites.

A primary navigational system with a standard left-hand page location should be grouped by subject, i.e. Content for, Resources, or Programs, if the numbers of links exceed six.

Accessibility

Templates should adhere to Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and accessibility guidelines. For example, when inserting images, this means including the “alt” tags that describe the image in a text format. Another example of making the site more accessible is not to set a font size so that users can adjust the font size on their browser.

All images should be optimally compressed to decrease the download time of pages for users with dial-up connections. If larger images are necessary (or video and audio files), the link to these files should give users information about the size of the file.

Suggested page weight should not exceed 40K. The home page especially needs to load quickly.

If web design or web applications are used that need a longer download time, an alternative content needs to be offered to those users who cannot access these designs or applications.

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Last updated March 19, 2008