The following policies and guidelines, approved by Office of Adminstration Senior Staff, are intended to provide direction to UC Davis Office of Administration departments in developing and maintaining local web sites. These guidelines reflect the Vice Chancellor's intent to provide flexibility and creativity at the department level while maintaining a consistent and professional tone to Office of Administration communications.
For the purposes of organization of information, effectiveness of communication, accountability and legal responsibility, the Office of Administration has developed the following guidelines for use of the World Wide Web.
Web publishers within the Office of Administration are:
Guidelines for links to the Vice
Chancellor-Administration Home Page
The Vice Chancellor-Administration web site, which
provides an overview of programs, services and activities
and serves as a table of contents for the Office of
Administration, is supported and maintained by staff in
the Vice Chancellor's Office. All departmental
sites should provide a link to the Vice
Chancellor-Administration web site. In requesting links to
their departmental web sites, Office of Administration departments agree to
abide by the following policies. Web sites that do not conform will be removed as links.
Identify Content Provider
Each departmental web site should include the departmental mission
statement and, if appropriate, departmental goals and objectives. Each page
must identify the webmaster and content provider (in some cases this may be
the same person). The content provider might be a functional manager who can
respond to inquiries about specific departmental programs and services. This
will provide a source of contact for those individuals who have specific functional
questions or who discover incorrect or outdated material on any Office
of Administration web site.
In addition, each home page should include one or more of the following navigational links: a link to the departmental web site, a link to the Vice Chancellor-Administration web site and/or a link to the UC Davis web site.
Appropriate Use of Office of Administration
Resources
Office of Administration resources may not be used for
the development or maintenance of personal or vanity home
pages. Employees who wish to develop their own personal
home pages are encouraged to contract with a commercial
provider.
Links to Commercial Entities
In general, any link on a University web site to a
commercial or external organization should be justified
by a valid University business relationship. It is
important to avoid the appearance of endorsing a
particular product or service. If, for example, a
department has a contract for energy management services
and wishes to provide campus customers with additional
information, then it may be appropriate to include a link
to that commercial enterprise on the department home
page. The business reason for the commercial link should
also be provided.
Use of University Name, Seal and Logo
For campus policies on use of the University name and
seal, refer to UC Davis Policy and Procedure Manual
Section 310-65. Within those guidelines, the use of the
UC Davis name, seal and logo is permitted on Office of
Administration web pages.
Use of images
In theory, any time a photographer takes a photo for
print or electronic publication in which a person or
small group of people is the subject, the campus Public
Communication office recommends getting a signed release
form. In many cases, though, a photographer explains what
the photo will be used for and gets verbal permission.
The standard release form is available from Campus
Reprographics [Form D#2058].
Use of trademarks and copyrights
Web publishers are responsible for compliance with
current copyright laws and relevant UC Policies (see
Policy and Procedures Sections 210-70 through 73). In
general, though, find out who owns the copyright and get
permission to reproduce the material.
The Office of Administration encourages the creation of departmental web teams (that include both business and technical perspectives) to recommend ways to further departmental goals and objectives through the use of the web. Putting together a web site is a unique blend of publishing, user interface design and technology. There are a variety of applications that can be developed on the web:
Multimedia publishing (primarily read only)
Publishers provide electronic documents containing text,
images, drawings, sound and video, and readers access this
material as an integrated electronic multimedia document
Interactive forms (to send information)
Publishers design and provide web-based forms, which users can fill
out and submit to a database. In some cases these online forms can replace
traditional paper-based forms, surveys, and administrative processes.
Front-end access to online information
Form features can also be used to provide a front-end
for requesting user-selected information from a variety of
databases. One advantage of this approach is that users would
only need to know how to interact with a web browser. In addition, using a web "front-end" may reduce or eliminate the need for departments to
purchase specific software (Oracle, Maximo, etc.).
The following content and graphic guidelines are intended to provide overall direction to Office of Administration units in planning and maintaining web sites. The guidelines are not mandatory but reflect some of the issues facing web publishers.
Establish goals for your site
Is your site there to provide information and graphics,
to provide a unique service such as an index or database
front-end, or to interest others in your programs and
services? Think about the web as a tool to improve your
effectiveness. It can be used to provide information
about your activities and services, as a research tool
for your own programs and a vehicle for customer support.
Determine your audience
Each home page is unique and departments should consider
their audience before publishing on the Web. The audience
may be other universities, potential students or members
of the general public searching for information about our
campus, as well as members of the campus community. It is
important to consider who the primary audience is so that
the information you provide is relevant and meaningful.
Review your pages with an emphasis on content
Just as with paper
publishing, your web pages should follow the normal
procedures of proper review and approval before you
publish them. Remember that your pages are representative
of your department, the Vice Chancellor of Administration
and UC Davis. If you would be reluctant to have your work
published and distributed on paper, don't put it on the
web. Web publishing is not an opportunity to show off
your technical prowess; instead use the technical aspect
to support and enhance your message. Don't let it
overpower the content of your work.
Make the best use of your home page
Your home page is the most valuable portion of your web
collection. Do not waste home page space on introductory
paragraphs that users will ignore. Background and history
may be included, but shrink it to a link labeled "Introduction" or "About".
In the world of the WWW, every visitor is
different
There are great variations in computer platform, display
setup, processor and disk speed, connection speed and
browser software being used by each visitor to your
web site. Decide whether the goal of your site is for
'technical razzle-dazzle' or for enjoyment of everyone.
Don't create a site that only a small fraction of
visitors can view properly. While Internet Explorer is the browser
of preference for most users, consider how your site looks
with Firefox, Safari, and other popular browsers. Pay attention when
someone tells you they had trouble viewing your site. For
every person who takes the time to contact you, there are likely many others who have given up in frustration.
Concentrate on original work...
Readers are looking for information specific to your
department and projects. Collections of pointers to the
work of others may be relevant in some cases but should
not substitute for publishing your own documents and
materials.
...but, take advantage of the work of others
Partnership and cooperation should be included in your
publishing. Don't duplicate the work of others, but take
advantage of it. Incorporate links to others when
appropriate. If you reduce redundancy and recreating the
wheel, you can focus on original work for your
department.
Give users cross links
Users should be able to move from one major page to
another without having to go back to your home page. Put
cross links to all your major pages at the bottom or side of all
major pages. For example, the Accounting and Financial
Services web site might contain cross links on all pages to the DaFIS home page.
Follow a simple and consistent design
Graphics are a big reason for the interest in the web.
You want to include graphics but don't overuse them.
Complex designs can confuse users, so keep it simple. A
consistent design helps readers focus more on content and less
on how to maneuver through your pages. Don't use a
colored, textured or graphic background unless absolutely
necessary--use color to convey information. Blinking text
and other 'decorations' are distractions that get in the
reader's way. Think very carefully about the colors and
textures you choose and the effect on download time and
readability.
Consider how documents are presented to the users
In most cases, a given page should be no longer than 3-4
screens. Don't feel obligated to make every reference to
VC-Administration or UC Davis a hot link. The page should
not overwhelm with links to other sources unless it is an
index or summary page. Try not to have two links on a
single page to the same web site.
Keep names short and descriptive
Give your files and subdirectories short but descriptive names and always
use lowercase only. Remember, these names appear in your Uniform Resource
Locator (URL) and on some systems URLs can be case sensitive. For example:
Best method: http://www.ucdavis.edu/dafis
Potential problem: http://www.ucdavis.edu/DaFIS/
Keeping your names short and in lowercase simplifies your URL.
Make hot text meaningful
A page of 'click here' links will not help readers easily
locate the information they want. For example:
Poor: For information on DaFIS, click here
Good: For information on DaFIS, see Information on DaFIS (avoid redundancy)
Best: See DaFIS System for more information.
Expect to have to change it
Web publishing is not a one-time task. Keep all pages up
to date. In many ways, it is quicker and more convenient
to update Web pages than paper documents. We probably
won't get it right the first time so expect to learn from
what you do wrong. Knowing what doesn't work is the most
useful knowledge you'll have when it comes to making it
work. Is your site easy to modify? Some things that make
changes difficult are sloppy formatting of Hypertext
Markup Language (HTML) code, imagemaps, and a site where
every page links to every other page.
Last updated: March, 2006