Style and Content Guidelines

Much of style is somewhat subjective and guidelines can be quite lengthy depending on the author. There are some excellent guides that have already been written and are available on the Web itself:

• A Beginner's Guide to HTML by Marc Andreessen
• Style Guide for online hypertext by Tim Berners-Lee (the inventor of WWW)
• Links to other style guide pages can be found at http://guinan.gsfc.nasa.gov/WebStars/Style.html
• You may wish to consider these notes on style and design from the University of Indiana, Bloomington.
  

There is no enforced standard for page content; however, they must be within limitation of copyright and libel laws. Authors are asked to employ some reasonable judgment consistent with community standards when designing their pages.

As a general guide, please consider the following:

• Colleges and departments are responsible for preparing and maintaining their own Web pages. The information should be accurate, current and useful.
• Sign each page with an e-mail address so users can contact someone responsible for maintenance of the page, to send comments or request information.
• It doesn't hurt to also include the name, address, phone and contact person for the department, program, or organization.
  
• It is the deconstructed nature of the web that any page can be visited in whatever order and by whatever fashion the reader chooses. Thus, many pages may be read outside the intended context of the author. Therefore, every page intended to fit within some arbitrary hierarchy should include buttons or text to return to the author's intended previous page or pages as well as to the UVM home page.
• By the same token, all pages should be clearly marked as a product of the University of Vermont. In marketing, this is known as branding.
  
• Although access to information placed on the Web can be restricted on many different levels, if your information is sensitive or is not for everyone on the Internet, consider other methods of transmittal.
  
• Remember that student data is confidential; please don't put it on the Web!
  
• Keep documents as short as possible, particularly menus.
  
• Link to files rather than recreating data already available on the Web, particularly if the data is "owned" by another college/department. This applies, for example, to course descriptions, faculty listings, images, and other information. Avoid including text of campus specific information, i.e. admissions information, tuition and fees, etc. which is the responsibility of another organization. Link to those organizations rather than writing possibly conflicting information.
  
• Content of pages should be grammatically correct with no spelling errors.
  
• Graphics should provide useful visual clues about the information provided. Each college or departmental home page should include the UVM lettering and photograph, to be provided by the Webmaster. Templates should be followed closely for consistency. Pages should be tested on a non-graphical browser to make sure that information is accessible to the broadest possible audience. Graphics should not be so large that downloading is slow for the viewers.
  
• Try not to use inline graphics without specifying text that can be displayed as an alternative in text-only environments. The design must be considerate of text-based browsers. Consider the HTML tag "alt" for naming graphic images.
  
• Try not to use gratuitous graphics.
  
• Personal Pages Disclaimer: consider this standard Disclaimer on all pages that link to personal pages:

  The University supports both institutional and personal web pages. The views expressed on personal web pages are strictly those of the author, and are not reviewed or approved by the University of Vermont.

• Commercial Links: It is not within the purview of the UVM Webmasters to pick and choose among the many web sites outside the University for the purpose of creating links from University pages to those sites, thereby making implicit endorsements. Therefore, it is the Webmaster's general policy not to link to non-UVM personal pages, businesses or institutions on Webmaster-maintained, top-level University menus. However, individual research groups, departments and other organizations within UVM are not prohibited from linking to non-UVM pages that offer information relevant to their area of expertise and that they feel reflect the same high standards expected of publications at The University of Vermont.

The system managers reserve the right to temporarily disable those pages which attract sufficient network notoriety as to interfere with system performance.

The University supports both institutional and personal web pages. The views expressed on personal web pages are strictly those of the author, and are not reviewed or approved by the University of Vermont

Read the Webmaster's Policies.

Send questions and comments to webmaster@uvm.edu

Last page update: November 6, 1996