Websites

The following recommendations are approved by the ACC web Committee. For more information on websites at ACC, please visit the Web Development Area.

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 who “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 Out-of-date content is worse than no content.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 website 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 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. Using the name of the college as a wallpaper is also prohibited.

ACC Logo download Area

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. Tables 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 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 websites be accessible for the disabled. 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.

5. A library of photographs is available online for your convenience at http://www.austincc.edu/marketing/resources.

6. For levels below tier 3, page designers are encouraged to include an ACC identifier (e.g., ACC logo, "ACC," or "Austin Community College") to assist users in navigating the ACC website.

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 websites, 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.