Website Design and Content Standards

February 20, 2006

About the Kettering University Web Site

Kettering University ’s web site is the “front door” to the world and is in most cases the first contact to many of the targeted audiences of the University. With this in mind the web site must be kept well managed with a clean design and clear content. The web site is audience driven with a main emphasis on marketing to potential students.

General Considerations

All websites must have the same general look and feel so that visitors from anywhere in the world will always know when they are on a Kettering University website. Consistent design presents a strong University identity, gives the website coherence and integrity, and helps to strengthen the individual and overall messages.

Kettering University has a tradition of high quality education. We need to maintain and add to this tradition with the Kettering University website. The website can influence the image of Kettering University within Michigan, the country, and the rest of the world. Therefore, it is imperative that the website give a favorable impression of Kettering University.

Editorial Standards and Recommendations

Plain Language
The use of clear writing principles is important. Your website might be your first and only chance to communicate your message, and the first impression could last a long time. Clearly written information will invite visitors to keep reading and will improve the chance that they will receive the message you are sending. One of the keys to writing good web site content is to understand that web users generally scan for content and generally do not read everything unlike printed material. So with this in mind, keep web content as clear and concise as possible.

Acronyms
Acronyms are useful only if their meaning is clear; otherwise they obscure rather than assist the message. It is very likely that most visitors to the Kettering University website will be seeing most acronyms for the first time. Therefore, every acronym should be clearly defined on every series of pages. A good guideline is to write out the full name or phrase the first time it is used and follow it immediately with the acronym in parentheses.

Technical Web Site Standards

XHTML Standards
All official Kettering University web sites should be written for the XHTML 1.0 Transitional. XHTML renders in web browsers faster and more consistently than HTML 4.0 and XHTML is still compatible for users with older browsers.

CSS Standards
The use of Cascading Style Sheets for styling web pages is strongly recommended. CSS effectively will separate design code from the content of a web page, making it easier to code and also easier for browsers to load pages. By separating content from the design, it will be easier to roll out future upgrades to the University’s web site.

Validating Web Coding
It is very important to code XHTML and CSS correctly. Some browsers are very forgiving and might show features as intended even with incorrect code, but different versions of even the most popular browsers may not be so forgiving and your web page may not look correct to the end user.

XHTML Validation: http://validator.w3.org/
CSS Validation: http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/

Multimedia and Graphics

Multimedia and Flash
Multimedia and Flash should be used carefully and in general should not replace the standard textual presentation of information. Large-scale use of multimedia can make visitors without the necessary plug-ins or latest browser version feel excluded. This does not rule out the use of multimedia, because it can provide unique experiences. Proper use of multimedia can also help to showcase the technological capabilities and in addition the multimedia can be used as a marketing tool for Kettering University.

Graphic Formats
Graphics will be in JPEG or GIF format, which are the formats most widely supported by graphics-capable browsers. PNG support of web browsers is still too uneven to rely on this format. Also be sure to archive any files that you used to compile the JPEG or GIF files (i.e. PSD “Adobe Photoshop Document”, PNG, etc.) so that modification to any created graphics can be done easily with the original graphic document.

When creating graphics be sure that the image is of high quality. Many times users will increase the size of a poor quality image which results in a grainy or pixilated looking graphic, which hurts the overall professional look of a web page.

Accessibility

Accessibility is the means of providing access to web pages for users who might have disabilities, or use alternative types of browsers such as screen readers. It is intended that Kettering University will move towards developing web pages that more closely adhere to the W3C Priority 1 and 2 checkpoints when possible and where practical.

Proper adherence to the W3C's Web Accessibility Initiative checkpoints and techniques will allow more people to have access to government information and services. The same practices make sites more accessible to search engines (which have many of the same accessibility problems with most sites as do people with disabilities), which will make it easier for more people to find university information and services.