USF Web Guidelines
All official USF Web sites must adhere to these USF Web guidelines.
Defining an Official USF Web Page
An official USF Web page or Web site constitutes any page or site hosted by USF that includes usf.edu in its URL (example: www.coedu.usf.edu) and is available to the public. Pages directed at internal audiences (for example, the myUSF intranet, class portals, and Web applications such as GEMS) are not subject to this set of guidelines.
All content on USF public Web pages represents the image and the identity of the University of South Florida and should adequately reinforce its vision, values and fundamental mission. Every Web page has an impact on the university’s ability to promote a positive image to other universities, accrediting agencies, funding agencies, the media, donors, prospective students, their families, and the public. To that end, USF's official Web pages must present an attractive, coherent, and consistent view of the university and its identity to anyone who visits any portion of the Web site.
The mission of these guidelines is to facilitate that objective. Web pages that are part of the USF Web site represent USF in whole or in part and, therefore, are expected to adhere to these guidelines.
Personal pages created by students, faculty, or staff, as permitted by the university or individual departments, are not included in these guidelines but are subject to the guidelines located in the appendix I “Personal Web Pages” at the end of this document.
Legal Requirements
Copyright - Official USF Web sites are expected to follow legal and copyright laws regarding content, including the use of photographs, music, artwork and other intellectual property. All content displayed on a USF Web site should be (i) original works of authorship; (ii) used by permission of the work’s original author; or (ii) otherwise used in accordance with University Policy 0-105, Copyright Policy. All content used by permission must include specific "used by permission" attribution language or credits on the same page as the content being used. Any person who provides content to be displayed on a USF Web page or Web site that violates this requirement agrees to be responsible for all liability and other claims resulting from such a violation and shall indemnify and hold harmless the University of South Florida from any costs, expenses or liability that might be asserted or imposed upon it or any of its officers, agents or affiliates as a result of such violation.
Illegal or Improper Activity - Official USF Web sites and associated network (servers, disk storage space, and bandwidth) may not be used for any illegal activity, nor any activity prohibited by university student, faculty, or staff conduct policies, computer use policy, technology resource policies, or other university rule or regulation, including but not limited to spamming. Computer crimes will be referred to appropriate law enforcement jurisdictions for investigation and prosecution.
The USF Web site and associated network shall not be used to advertise or sell non-university products or services.
Business - The USF Web site and associated network shall not be used to promote personal business or business activities.
Efficient Operation - Web page creators must refrain from any activity that impedes the efficient operation of the USF Web site or its associated network, or impedes the flow of information necessary in the operation of the university. This includes (but is not limited to) download services that allow users to share MP3 files. Use of USF Web sites and information resources that negatively impacts operations or uses excessive bandwidth or resources is not authorized and may be terminated.*
* ACCEPTABLE USE - All use of USF Web sites and information resources is subject to and governed by the University’s Acceptable Use Policy 0-502, Appropriate Use of Information Technology Resources, University Policy 0-501, Using and Protecting Information Technology Resources and University Policy 507, Protection of Personal Information.
* USF TRADEMARKS AND LOGOS - You may only use official university trademarks and logos in conjunction with a USF Web site as described below. All other use is strictly prohibited except as described below.
General Web Content Guidelines
The official university logo, maintained by the Office of University Communications & Marketing, shall be used unaltered on every official USF Web page. The logo must be located at the topmost portion of every USF Web page, preferably on the left-hand side of your banner. Official USF logos can be downloaded from the official USF logos page.
You must use the official USF logo configurations and colors as established in the Visual Identity & Graphic Standards manual. Web safe color choices for online versions for official USF logos come from a palette of 256 colors that display accurately on 8 bit graphics cards and across platforms. These are displayed in hexadecimal values, and can be accessed from any graphics program that can display a "Web safe palette" of colors. The official Web safe USF colors are
- Green - 00573c
- Gold - dfd0a5
The official USF logo MUST link back to the USF home page (www.usf.edu)
The official university seal IS NOT to be used on any Web page and is reserved for use on official USF documents (such as diplomas, presidential letters, etc.).
Every Web page must include a link to the USF home page (www.usf.edu).
Every Web page must include contact information for the person who manages that Web site. It should include a phone number and a working e-mail address preferably located on the footer of all Web pages.
Every departmental Web site must include full contact information, including a contact person’s name, mailing address, phone number (with area code) and e-mail address via a clear link to a central page with that information (i.e. Contact Us).
Every Web page needs navigational links to avoid the "dead end syndrome" -- users must be able to get to the HOME page of any site from a sub page of that site.
It is recommended that these informational links be part of your header (along with the official USF logo), in no particular order, preferably located on the top-right of your banner:
Technical Guidelines
Every Web page should contain a unique, informational title (<title> </title>) that describes the specific content or purpose of the page.
All USF Web pages must include Meta Tags for “keywords” and “description.” Click here for more information on how to use HTML Meta Tags.
Do not use descriptive words or phrases in a Meta Tag that do not accurately describe content on your Web page, such as would be done in order to gain some advantage in search engine placement. Limit descriptive words to the content of your site and the services / information your department provides on-line.
Every Web page must have the author's name and e-mail address in the HEAD of the document, whether as a comment or META TAG.
Every Web page that uses a graphic element (photo, artwork, graphic) must include height and width attributes to facilitate faster text downloading (this creates a "bounding box" or image proxy where the image will be placed allowing the browser to display text immediately instead of waiting for the image to load completely).
Web pages must not use technology that interferes with the operation of the navigation elements of a browser or adds customization to the mouse pointer. DO NOT use pop-up pages or pages that remove the navigational elements. Pages that open another instance of a browser do not fit in this category, provided the user still has access to full browser functionality.
Every page that uses a graphic element must include ALT tags for each image with meaningful descriptions. Adding ALT tags allow search engines to recognize all the content on your site. ALT tags filled with keywords can also be used to boost your keyword frequency and help you achieve better rankings. ALT tags also make your site more accessible to visually impaired people using text readers.
Web pages or downloadable documents containing important, substantive information (such as downloadable forms, admissions information, etc.) need to keep the SAME URL regardless of the document version. For example, if an admissions-related document is posted as a PDF file then changed later for a new semester, the name and Web address of the document must remain the same.
E-mail links on Web pages need to contain the actual e-mail written out as text and not just the “mailto:” tag. For example, “Send e-mail to: webmaster@admin.usf.edu” and not “Send e-mail to: Webmaster”.
Web pages may use technologies that require plug-ins (such as Flash, QuickTime, etc.) or other advanced technology (such as Java or VRML), but crucial information must be accessible without the user being required to have such technology on their computer. Features and technologies that are browser-specific can be used in a "sanitary fashion" provided they have no adverse effect on the page if a visitor’s browser does not support them.
Frames are strongly discouraged - however, if a site must use them, each frame must include navigation elements allowing a user who opens just one frame of the frameset with a way to navigate back to the departmental or university home page. Each frame must also contain the departmental name and either a USF logo or the words “University of South Florida” in text somewhere in the body of the page.
We recommend Web pages be designed to work in:
- Internet Explorer 6.0 or higher (Windows)
- Firefox 2.0 or higher (Windows and Mac)
- Safari (Windows and Mac)
Web Style Recommendations
Be aware of page download time. Despite the number of fast Internet connections available for users to connect to the Web, a significant population of users still uses standard dial-up modems to connect to the Web. This is particularly true of populations outside the United States. Because of this, Web page designers should keep page sizes small enough to display quickly for users with modems as slow as 28K. Industry experts suggest a page should load in under 10 seconds on 56K modems.
Use of Frames - The use of frames in a Web site has many drawbacks associated with it. Each frame is treated as a separate Web page by search engines. Thus, individual frames are often shown as individual results in a search engine. These frames, taken out of the context of the other parts of the frameset, are often void of navigation and proper departmental / university identification. They are also often missing either navigation (thus becoming a dead-end for users) or they have only navigation and no content. Also, frames often disrupt search engines enough to cause rankings to be poor in search results.
Dynamic pages versus static pages - Pages generated on the fly by ASP, PHP, or other technologies will generally have poorer search engine results than static web pages. In addition, dynamic pages are slower to load on a visitor's browser than static pages with the same content. For this reason, use dynamic pages only when necessary.
Adobe PDF files - Use PDF files only when an HTML version of the same content cannot be created, or until an HTML version of the material can be created. When creating PDF files of print publications, create them so that pages are displayed in twos, matching the printed piece. Keep file sizes for PDF files as small as possible and test thoroughly in older versions of Adobe Reader.
Proprietary files - Creating files for public download that are in proprietary formats like Word or Excel is strongly discouraged. These files require the user to own a particular application in order to view them. Some document file types to consider include PDF files and rich text files.
Appendix I - Personal Web Pages
All pages hosted at USF - including personal pages - must support research, instruction or constitute an official USF communication. If a personal page supports research or education, it must have a faculty sponsor. If it constitutes an official university communication, it must be approved by the Office of University Communications & Marketing before publication to the Web.