To lead the way in meeting the needs of our students, the following standards are required to make sure Marketing does its part to make our Web sites the best they can be. Remember, if you have any questions, please contact your Steering Committee representative.

 

Accessibility

It is the ultimate goal of most companies for all of their Web pages to be accessible to persons with disabilities. Because numerous departments are needed to work toward this goal, the following should be second-nature to make sure we are meeting the most important (and easiest) accessibility standards as the Marketing department.

Standard #	Name	Guideline	Comments
S001	Alternate text	is required for all visual media (images, videos, animations, etc.)
S002	Forms	All forms (request more info, chat, sif, etc.) must be coded with TAB rules for the visually impaired

Links and Navigation

Please use the following to maintain consistency in creating links and navigations for Marketing-branded Web sites.

Standard #	Name	Guideline	Example
S004	Navigation Types	All marketing web pages must include the following types of navigation on every page, unless waived by the steering committee after submitting a website change request.	Global Navigation Sub Navigation Breadcrumb Navigation Footer Navigation
S005	Link Naming	All links must let user know where the link will take them in the shortest amount of words possible. Implied links are discouraged.	Show examples here

Domain Strategy

Business Units will be given the ability to create domain aliases, and responsibility also comes with it. To make sure our students can search for, link to, and easily reference our Web pages, the following standards will help in this area.

Standard #	Name	Guideline	Comments
Creating Aliases
S006	Spaces	Never use spaces between words. Use an underscore if needed, and a dash as the last option if underscore is inappropriate.
S007	Naming	When creating an alias for a program page, list program name, followed by degree type awarded.
S008	Capitalization	Always/Never capitalize the first letter of each word in the alias.
S009	Size	Keep alias as short as possible but recognizable to a user.

Page Elements

The last thing Marketing wants is for a user to end up on a page that causes them to second-guess our credibility, or that it is not up to the standard they expect in an education Web site. To make sure that Marketing does all we can on our end to attract and keep those users happy (no dead ends, for example), make sure to include the following page elements in all Web pages. Please contact the Steering Committee if there is a need for a page that should not include all of these elements.

Standard #	Name	Guideline	Comments
S010	Required Page Elements	Masthead Global Navigation Sub Navigation Herospace Image CTA Links Content Area Marketing Buckets Breadcrumb Navigation Footer Legal Footer

File Formats

Business Units will also be given the ability to upload files to the Ektron system and link to them. If not sure about which file type to use and upload, or why a file type was not accepted when trying to upload it, reference the following table below.

Standard #	Name	Guideline	Comments
S011	Image Formats	GIF, JPG, PNG, SWF (degrades to jpg img);
S012	Multimedia Formats	Flash (primary) or degrades to non-flash download page with screenshot and download links in AVI or MOV format
S013	PDF	Appropriate for large scale documents in which version number is required and changes are prohibited outside of content source
S014	Word Doc	Appropriate for files that will be used as templates and alteration is approved	(2007? Which version?)
S015	Document Licensing	All PDF and Word documents must have Creative Commons license listed next to it on the website and also watermarked at the bottom of the document.	For more information, visit Creative Commons Website (send Shani email about this)

Content Tone

No matter what Marketing-branded Web site a user is visiting, the tone should always be seamless, one. To help with this, make sure to follow the rules below to keep all Web sites unified when creating content for your Web site.

Standard #	Name	Guideline	Comments
S003

Measurement and Compliance

It would be unresponsible to ask Business Units to reference this Web site without making sure that it is meeting everyone's needs. For this reason, the following methods will be used as the cornerstone of Business Unit satisfaction and measuring the efficiency of the Web Governance project.

Standard #	Name	Guideline	Comments
S016	Steering Committee	The Steering Committee will meet quarterly to discuss the Web Governance project status. SC Representatives will pass down information from the meeting to their constituents when applicable.
S017	Random Surveys	Surveys will be anonymously distributed and collected to get feedback from Marketing employees to measure effectivenes of web governance project.

Change Request Forms

The forms below were created to help Business Units submit a request to the Steering Committee. They help to quickly meet a need faster and track its progress in relation to all other Business Units. If an issue is urgent or a form does not exist in the list below, contact one of the steering committee members directly. Please use email only if the forms below will not satisfy your need to communicate with the Steering Committee.

Standard #	Name	Guideline	Comments
S018	Add new web page to Marketing Branded website	Add link here
S019	New Creative Request	Add link here
S020	Standard/Procedure change or update	Add link here
S021	New Marketing Campaign Request	Add link here
S022	New Analytic Report Request	Add link here
S023	Other (Basic Template)	Add link here
S024	Ektron Training Request (training needed, current issue description)	Add link here

* Before submitting a request, please read the Guidelines for Submitting a Request to the Steering Committee.

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