Web Style Resources

NSU Web Style Resources

Web Design Guidelines

Statement of Purpose

The NSU Web Design Guidelines are intended to inform readers of the standards for creating and maintaining Official World Wide Web pages at Nova Southeastern University. Included in the guide are format requirements that must be adhered to for all official NSU web pages, as well as information and resources regarding development of said pages. This Guide is not meant to be an introduction to writing HTML; rather as a reference for those creating web pages at NSU.

Responsibility

Academic and administrative units are solely responsible for the currency and compliance of content, links, and images on official Web pages that contain information about their areas. Web pages must comply with all applicable University policies.

A contact person must be designated to serve as a liaison between the unit and the Office of Innovation and Information Technology. This contact person will be informed of scheduled downtimes, changes in policies, or information applicable to the NSU web or web pages in question.
All content providers and web developers must sign an Information Provider Agreement. This form is available at www.nova.edu/common-lib/policies/ipa.html and affirms the commitment to serving the NSU population through timely and appropriate web content.

Audience and Browser Compatibility

All official Web pages must be viewable and accessible to visitors using browser versions Internet Explorer 6.x+ and Netscape 7.x+ .

Location

All official NSU Web Pages must be located on servers owned and administered by an academic or administrative unit of Nova Southeastern University.

Official Web Pages

Provide information relating to an office, department, or other official unit of the University and/or its academic programs, services or functions.

The NSU Style

By executive decision of the Information Technology Policy Committee, official Web pages for the University must be consistent in format, using standard graphic themes and information layouts. The following defines the 'NSU Style.'

Cascading Style Sheets

In order to maintain a uniform appearance for the Nova Southeastern University Web site, NSU utilizes a feature of HTML 4.0 called 'cascading style sheets' (CSS). With this method, web pages point to a 'style sheet' that serves as a template for how the page text, headings, links, etc. are to be formatted. The advantage of style sheets is that the definitions of how a page appears is external, so when a change needs to be made in the style, changing the 'style sheet' will change the appearance of all pages on the site instantly, without requiring mass editing.

To utilize CSS in your official pages, simply include the following link within the <HEAD> portion of your HTML document: (This method of referencing will work for all NSU web servers)

If using importing an external style, as shown below, please note Netscape 4.x browsers will not recognize the style sheet. The style sheet link reference above is needed for Netscape 4.x browsers.

For a specialized CSS for your academic web site, please contact webteam@nova.edu

Templates

OIIT develops templates upon request. For more information, please email to webteam@nova.edu.

Page Layout

Recommended page layout should be designed for 800 x 600 resolution.

META Tags

These tags help students and visitors find your web pages by allowing search engines to index the material you provide and put it into categories. META tags are placed by the web developer in the <HEAD> portion of each web page, and should contain information which is immediately descriptive and relevant to the page on which it is placed. The following types of META tags should be placed within each official NSU page:

Name/Type of Tag	Content	Example (for a web page describing financial aid)
Author	Name of the College, Center, or Department whose page this is, followed by a comma and NSU	<meta name="author" content="Student Financial Services, NSU" />
Keywords	The words you think someone will most likely plug into a search engine to find a page like yours, words closely associated with your page topic	<meta name="keywords" content="financial aid, funding, pell grant, perkins loans, fafsa, scholarships, work study, student employment, loans" />
Description	A short description of the page content	<meta name="description" content="Information about financial aid at Nova Southeastern University, including how financial need is calculated, where to obtain a FAFSA, and what scholarships and student employment options are available" />

Page Header

Page headers must include the following elements, in order:

NSU graphical banner contains links to the NSU Home page, the NSU Search engine, and the NSU Site Map and the NSU logo. You can request an NSU graphical banner for your department/center by contacting Educational Technology Systems and Services (webteam@nova.edu)
Local Navigation Bar contains links to the main home page of the local area (i.e., a local navbar for a page of the Budget Office, would contain a link to the Financial Operations home page) and to any major sections of the local site. The local navigation bar can be located on the left side (vertical) or just below the NSU graphical banner (horizontal) on the site. Navigation located just below the NSU graphical banner may utilize drop down menus to increase usability. This navigation must stay consistent throughout the department/school site.
- Text version of local navbar - Centered Text links replicating those found in the local graphical navbar at the top of the page, in the format of text links separated by a vertical bar ( First Link | Second Link | Third Link) and leading to the appropriate pages
Title of Page (Graphic or Text): Each official NSU web page should have a page title which appears at the top of the page. (Page titles either graphical or text based should be consistent in form)
* If graphical, use NSU official colors NSU blue #000080, NSU Gray #C0C0C0.

* If a text-based page title is used, the font must be in Arial, Helvetica, or sans-serif, and the text itself should be larger than the body text to distinguish it as a page heading.

Body

The body of official pages must adhere to the following format:

Regular Text: Arial/Helvetica/Sans-serif fonts or Verdana/Arial/Helvetica/Sans-serif
Section Headers Within Text: Arial/Helvetica/Sans-serif or Verdana/Arial/Helvetica/Sans-serif fonts
If you are linking to the NSU Style sheet, you can create various section headers
Links: Arial/Helvetica/Sans-serif or Verdana/Arial/Helvetica/Sans-serif fonts, Unvisited Color #000080, Visited Color #800080
Colors:
NSU Blue is defined as #000080 or RGB 0, 0, 128
NSU Gray is defined as #C0C0C0 or RGB 128, 128, 128

Footer

Footers must include the following elements:

Date of Revision: The date on which each HTML document was last revised should be included on the page. This should be preceded by 'Last Revised:,' 'Modified on:,' or something similar.
Font: Arial/Helvetica/Sans-serif or Verdana/Arial/Helvetica/Sans-serif fonts, smaller point than the body of the document. If you are linking to the external stylesheet, you can apply the class of "footer" to your tag ( i.e., <P class="footer">).
Contact Information for Maintaining Department: This information must be a mailto link, and should point to a centralized account email alias, rather than someone's personal email address. To set up an email alias, or to change a current alias you may have, contact the Educational Technology Systems and Services at webteam@nova.edu
Copyright Notice: The word 'Copyright' within the footer must include a link to the following page: http://www.nova.edu/copyright.html.

Example: A complete footer for the H. Wayne Huizenga School of Business and Entrepreneurship might look like the following text hilighted in green (with, of course, the text in the navbar, and the word 'copyright' being links to the appropriate pages):

Nova Southeastern University

Innovation and Information Technology