Guidelines for World Wide Web Pages
and Other Electronic Publications


 
UVI Web Graphics for use on web pages.

THE GUIDELINES 

The following guidelines are provided to assure that all UVI web pages adhere to the high standards the University strives to maintain in all its public images:
  • Official pages should be well designed and written, accurate and truthful, grammatical and correctly spelled. Always have someone else look over your work before releasing it to the web. It is easy to make mistakes that can be embarrassing to you and to the University.
  • Web pages should have a link to UVI's web site at http://www.uvi.edu and can utilize one of the images available on this Web Design page under 'UVI Web Graphics.'  Another link can be placed to the general information mail box at pr@uvi.edu. For instance, you could put "For information about University of the Virgin Islands, contact <A HREF="MAILTO:pr@uvi.edu"> pr@uvi.edu</A>." at the bottom of your page.
  • Along with the concepts of "instant information" and "instantaneous communication" comes an increasing demand for "instant gratification." This means a well-designed web page should at a minimum: 
    1. Provide a concise summary of the information contained within the page/site. 
    2. Be designed so that the initial screen that appears upon loading contains all necessary navigational tools for finding contained information. 
    3. Load quickly, with complicated scripting and large graphics linked at secondary locations. 
    4. Be functional for visitors viewing "text-only". 
    5. Respect the integrity of the University while at the same time taking maximum advantage of personal creativity. 
    6. Have full contact information, including an e-mail contact for the department/division.
  • Remember this is the World Wide Web. Many of the people looking at your information will be from different countries with different cultures and backgrounds. They may have a limited command of English. Don't assume that your reader will know what you are talking about. Avoid abbreviations and acronyms; if you must use acronyms, spell out the words the first time you use them on each page.
  • Consider putting the URL of the document on each page so that people who print out your page will have a record of where they found it. If your web server supports server side includes (most do), you can generate that automatically by putting this bit at the bottom of your page: <B>URL:</B> http://<!--#echo var="SERVER_NAME"--><!--#echo var="DOCUMENT_URI"-->.
  • Think carefully about how to organize your information. Make it easy for your readers to find the information they are seeking.
  • Keep your pages as simple as possible. Remember, many people using the web are using slow modem connections. Pages with many or large graphics will take a long time to download and many people won't wait. Also, many people use text-only browsers, which will not show pictures or video, at all.
  • If you have links to large graphics, audio or video files, tell users how big the file is so that they can decide whether they have time to download it. 
  • Don't design your page too wide. Many users have monitors which only display 640 pixels wide. It's not nice to force them to scroll.
  • Try not to make your page too long. Web surfers hate to scroll down, too.
  • Avoid using complicated background patterns or colors; they can make the text on your page very difficult to read. Consider using a white, light blue, or soft gray background for a very professional, simple look to your page and easy reading.  Some combinations of text and background colors can be completely unreadable by people with color blindness. Different computer monitors will display the same color differently. 
  • Make your title succinct but meaningful and try to include "University of the Virgin Islands". Most search engines look at the page's title for indexing information. A page titled "Our Department" could be about almost anything, but one titled "Department of Marine Science (University of the Virgin Islands)" is pretty specific.
  • Don't say "click here" and don't use an "under construction" sign; both are amateurish, and the web is always under construction. If you have no information to put on the page, don't add a link that will say 'coming soon.'  If your page doesn't ever change, it is stale.
  • Don't create a page and abandon it. It should be an on-going project, constantly improving.
  • Don't duplicate the work of others. Rather than copy a document published by another department, link to it. If you copy a document and the original is modified, your copy will be incorrect.
  • Always check your page on different browsers. Unless you have a very simple page it will look very different on a text-based browser than a graphical one.
  • Avoid using non-standard HTML tags and tags not supported by many browsers. It is tempting to use the newest and "coolest" features, but if you do your pages may not be usable by many people. Some browsers do not display "frames" correctly; so if you must use frames, you should also use a NOFRAMES path.


THE POLICY AND STANDARDS 


The Policy on World Wide Web Pages and Other Electronic Publications should be read carefully by all current and prospective web page maintainers.

1. Official pages are those publicly accessible electronic documents which represent the University, its departments, offices, services, or other units, as well as officially registered student, faculty or staff organizations.

2. Personal pages are those pages stored on University computers or using an address in any of the University's Internet domains (uvi.edu, etc) which are created by and represent an individual.

UVI Home Page

For information about this page and the University of the Virgin Islands, contact Public Relations.

Updated 12/09/03