Web Coding and Design Standards

Adopted August 25, 2005

Purpose

These standards outline the requirements and guidelines for web page coding and design at Creighton University.

Standards

  1. Valid HTML or XHTML. The web team standard DOCTYPE is XHTML1.0 strict.
  2. The University Graphic Standard is applicable to all web sites. This includes typography, logo usage, color palette and any other standard outlined in the graphics standard manual that can be found at http://logo.creighton.edu.  Any questions on interpretation of web standards should be addressed to the Office of the Webmaster.
  3. All departmental and official University websites must meet ADA 508 Priority 1. Every effort should be made to meet Priority 2. Please review the Accessibility Policy for information on accessibility on the University web.  http://www.webaim.org can be used as a resource.
    1. Top “global branding” to the University is required and is restricted to global items.
      1. The Creighton logo should appear in the  upper left hand area of the screen (not required to be in exact corner of design, but must appear on every page). Clickable to www.creighton.edu .  In cases of professional schools with their own logo the Creighton portion of the logo should click back to www.creighton.edu and the name of the organization should click back to the main landing page for that organization.  See graphic standards manual for a list of approved logos.
      2. In situations where the Creighton logo is not in the upper left corner of the page but is located in another area of the page, the Creighton University type click back must be located in the upper left corner of the webpage clickable to www.creighton.edu.  For an example of this please see http://www2.creighton.edu/doit/creativeservices/
      3. Search: upper right corner, clickable to the University search. If an alternate search is desired, please clear it with the web team prior to launch. Existing search methods for large scale sites will be honored. Additional internal Typo3 search is also allowed for sites that reside within the CMS.
      4. Meta-menu: one of the two primary university meta-menu's should be on the site to allow ease of navigation to the public. Medical/Health Sciences websites may use the approved health sciences meta-menu.  The Creighton meta menu is: About Creighton, Academics, Campus & Community, Ministry, Administration  all clickable to the corresponding areas of the Creighton website.
    2. Use of Flash must conform to ADA standard (see WebAIM for “how to”) OR should not contain any critical information. IE: use it for accent and "wow", not content unless you provide alternative content delivery.
    3. Use the typographic.css style sheet LINKED in the header of your template. It sets the baseline size and font-families as well as defines some basic classes and definitions that will reduce browser incompatibility. The web typographic standard is Arial for text. Franklin Gothic is not approved for the web as it has limited adoption and inconsistent cross-browser display. Every website should contain the following code:

      <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" 
                  href="http://www2.creighton.edu/fileadmin/styles/typography.css" />
    4. Footer must contain copyright, name of University, mailing address, telephone number of either the main switchboard or the main department switchboard and an email to contact the webmaster OR the site owner that is responsible for tracking content issues on the page. It should also have task based links back to the Search and the Index.

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