Public Web Resources
Draft Guidelines for
University Web Pages
The following guidelines are suggested for the
publication of University web pages. See Web Central for links to
several design guides.
Content
1.
Design to accommodate the access needs of your audience. The
intended audience and the purpose of the page should be clear.
2.
Include a descriptive title tag that includes “UI” or
“Iowa” at the site’s homepage level. This title appears on the
browser window and identifies the page when bookmarked.
3.
Information providers must commit to keeping their sites
up-to-date. Calendars and dated announcements should be kept current.
Standard
Elements
4.
Include a general description of the unit either on the homepage
or linked to the homepage.
5.
Academic departments are encouraged to maintain a list of faculty
with biographical information.
6.
Static pages need not include the last update date. Pages with
changing content or time-dependent information should be date-stamped.
Possible formats for last update and e-mail contact information appear
below.
For example:
·
Maintained by dept-webmaster@uiowa.edu
·
Last updated <date> by dept-webmaster@uiowa.edu
·
Questions/Comments linked to e-mail address.
·
Last reviewed: <date>
Links
7.
Provide a notation by links to password-protected areas. Also
note large sound, video or image files. For key information, link to an
html file that does not require a browser plug-in.
8.
When appropriate, incorporate other institutional links into your
pages. Examples of links that might be appropriate to include are:
·
University General Catalog: http://www.uiowa.edu/registrar/catalog/
·
Operations Manual: http://www.uiowa.edu/~our/opmanual
·
Graduate College: http://www.uiowa.edu/~gradcoll
·
College homepage
·
With employment ads: Include the Affirmative Action
Nondiscrimination Statement: http://www.uiowa.edu/~oaa/nondiscr.htm
·
With events: Include the Affirmative Action Accommodations
Inquiry: http://www.uiowa.edu/~oaa/accommod.htm
9.
Academic departments should maintain an index to their
department’s web-based course materials at a standard url (to be
determined). This link will be included in the
On-line
Courses Index for Students.
10.
Consider
opening a new browser window for non-university web sites that you link
to. For example, <a href=“http://www.uiowa.edu/~uiweb/”
target=“new”>
11.
Unimplemented links should not be active.
Organization,
Pathnames
12. Use
the server's default name to name the primary HTML file. This will
typically be a version of “index” such as “index.html” or “index.htm”;
or “default” like “default.html”, or “default.htm”.
13.
On most servers, if the primary file is called index.html, you
need not specify it in URLs. You can use either:
http://www.uiowa.edu/index.html
or
http://www.uiowa.edu/
14.
Organize files into subdirectories.
A subdirectory is the
same thing as a folder. Create subdirectories to organize your web files
by topic. E.g., arts, sports, students.
15.
Keep names short and descriptive.
Give your files and
subdirectories short but descriptive names and consider using lower case
only on computers where filenames are case sensitive. On these
computers, URLs are case sensitive once past the computer name. For
example:
http://www.uiowa.edu/homepage/
Not: http://www.uiowa.edu/Homepage/
(because H in Homepage should be lower case)
Keeping your names short
and in lower case simplifies your URL. Telling someone the url is easier
if it is all the same case.
Like this: http://www.uiowa.edu/second-level/third-level/index.html
Rather than: http://www.uiowa.edu/
Second-Level/ThirD-leveL/index.html
16.
The root level of campus web servers should respond to queries
with a valid page. Depending on use of the server, this page may provide
links to resources hosted on it; it may point readers to the University
of Iowa home page (http://www.uiowa.edu); or it may simply carry a
message such as the server is not available for public viewing. This is
preferred over returning a “404 page not found” error to the
browser.
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