Web Design Guidelines

The following informational guidelines for Web sites apply to Colleges, Departments, Institutes, Centers, Schools, Academies, Associations, Foundations and Organizations at The University of Southern Mississippi.

In order to establish a user-friendly, informative Web site, it is important that all entities housed on the site take a relatively elementary approach to establishing their site, making sure it is easy to navigate, and provides basic information, in addition to any technical or advanced level of information. Taking a look at the site from a "first-timers" point of view will prove helpful in establishing sites.

Visitors to your site should be able to find (at minimum) the following information:

• Summary of the area
• List of faculty members with titles and contact information
• List of staff members with titles and contact information
• Physical location of the office
• Phone number and fax number for the main office
• Message from the dean or director, etc. (where appropriate)
• Bragging points
• Program information

All sites should include the full university name along with the department name. Inclusion of the university seal is also strongly encouraged. Departmental or division logos of any type or style are not to be used

Technical Inclusions:
A header with the following information:
(A header aids with our copyright ownership of information on the web site. It also helps Southern Miss pages in being recognized and located in search engines)

• META tags containing the identity of the page's author:
  <META NAME=AUTHOR CONTENT="Firstname Lastname">

• Copyright information:
  <META NAME="COPYRIGHT" CONTENT="© [YEAR] [Department or Organization]">
  
• Optional - keywords to assist indexing in search engines:
  <META NAME="KEYWORDS" CONTENT="[a list of keywords]"> -- example include "science", "security", "fraternal"
  
  

A footer on every university web page.

• The identity of the organization responsible for the page
  
• An indication that the organization is affiliated with The University of Southern Mississippi
  
• A link to http://www.usm.edu/
  
• For comments and questions, a "mailto:" link that uses an "@usm.edu" address pointing to the person or webmaster responsible for the page
  
• The date and time of the page's last update
  
• The page's exact and complete URL (e.g. the URL for this page is "http://www.usm.edu/itech/index.html")
  
• "AA/EOE/ADAI" to indicate "Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer/Americans with Disabilities Act Institution"

Following is the footer placed on the University main page:

Last modified: January 15, 2005 2:28 PM. Questions and Comments? The University of Southern Mississippi. URL: http://www.usm.edu/index.html AA/EOE/ADAI

If your area's current Web site URL is one of the older formats, you must change to a structured URL like this: http://www.usm.edu/name (Examples: www.otr.usm.edu will become www.usm.edu/itech)

Approved colors (text and graphics) for all sites are black, gold (PMS 122) and white. Shades of black and PMS 122 gold are also acceptable. (I.E.: faded golds, creams and greys can be included.) The hexidecimal values for PMS 122 Gold for the Web are: hex #FDC737 or 253/199/55 RGB. (The only exceptions to these color guidelines are nationally affiliated sites, and those that are primarily grant funded. Please contact Marketing and Public Relations for questions regarding this matter.)

No links to other sites are permissible, with the exception of those sites which represent the entity's affiliation with a statewide, regional, national or international organization that lend distinction. Logos for other organizations are only acceptable for use if that logo lends distinction to the university entity.

Use of Title tags to accommodate all visitors and valid HTML should be included. This is a compliance issue that makes it accessible for site visitors using JAWS and non-graphic browsers.

Each page written for a Southern Miss server should contain appropriate HTML tags that will align the page with HTML 4.0 (or latest standard) specification.

The following Web browsers will provide the best viewing experience: Internet Explorer 6, Mozilla 1+, Netscape 7+, etc. However, we are trying to maintain compatibility with older browsers. (This alignment will ensure the page's compatibility with all HTML 4.0-compliant browsers, Web indexers, and HTML "grammar" checkers.)

Reviews and revisions of content should be made on all existing information on current sites. All Web sites will be proofed and reviewed by the Department of Marketing and Public Relations. In the interest of saving time, a hard (paper) copy should be submitted to Southern Miss' university proofreader, Angie Cutrer, at Box 5016. After making the appropriate proofing changes, the hard copy should be submitted to Marketing and Public Relation's Web developer, Emily Clark, at the same box number. Please also provide the temporary URL, or a sample file on floppy disc or CD so that an accurate impression of your Web site's color usage can be gained.

Each site must receive a stamp of approval before it can be published. If you have any questions or concerns regarding this portion of the process, you may contact Emily Clark by e-mail at emily.c.clark@usm.edu or by phone at 266-4494.

For step by step information regarding this process, departmental templates, guidelines, Web review request forms, Web account request forms and more, please download the web redesign guidelines in PDF file or Word DOC.