Content Standards v 2
Content
ONLINE COMMUNICATION SERVICES FACTSHEET - CONTENT
Created by: Mark Selan Version 2.1 Date Last Modified: August 2008
WEBSITE CONTENT DEVELOPMENT & MAINTENANCE GUIDELINES
This document provides information to subweb administrators and publishers in the creation and maintenance of a subweb’s information architecture and content using the agency's corporate content management system, Gener8.
RELATED DOCUMENT
The Government-wide information in this document is based on the Government Website Standards and Protocols document:
http://www.cio.sa.gov.au/policies-and-standards/applications-and-internet/cto_s5-2_sa_government_website_standards.pdf
OVERVIEW OF SUBWEB CONTENT DEVELOPMENT
OVERVIEW OF SUBWEB CONTENT DEVELOPMENT STEP 1: PLANNING When considering a website the Business Unit must be able to answer the following: • • • • • • • • Why have a website? Who is the target audience? What does the target audience want/need from the website? Who will be responsible for the creation/addition of content as well as the ongoing maintenance for the website? What information will go on the website? What is the budget for the website (this should include a provision for the costs of ongoing maintenance ie staffing cost)? What are the graphical requirements of the website? Will it require an individual banner graphic (if so, then the additional cost of a graphic designer should be added to the budget estimate)? When will the website be required?
STEP 2: DEVELOPMENT The Business Unit then needs to contact Online Communication Services to discuss their website needs and help to resolve the following issues: • • The creation of a project brief & project initiation form (including costs and a project plan) Seek Executive Director or Director’s written approval as appropriate
Website Content Development and Maintenance Standards Version 2 — August 2008
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• • • • •
Know the end customer’s language, needs, etc before developing the information architecture What deployment(s) will best serve the intended audience (eg Portal, intranet, SSONet)? How much space is required (eg a web page or two, a separate content group, a full subweb)? What Policies, Procedures & Standards will affect the development of the subweb, particularly in regards to accessibility and graphics use? Is there any specialist functionality required within in the site, eg forums, multimedia, etc
STEP 3: CONSTRUCTION With the help of Online Communication Services, the Business Unit can now: • • • • If applicable, arrange to have the subweb created Register staff for web publishing training Begin adding content to the new website If applicable, work through Online Communication Services to get three quotes from graphic designers and begin developing a unique banner graphic (see the Subweb Visual Design Standards for more information)
STEP 4: LAUNCHING & ONGOING MAINTENANCE Following its creation and to ensure that the web presence stays relevant, and its content remains current, the following actions are recommended: • • • • • Develop a marketing plan to let users know that the project, Business Unit or Service Group is now online Update the website content regularly to ensure accuracy and relevancy Check all links to external sites (including other DECS Units) on a regular basis to ensure they’re still working using Page Review functionality. Develop networks with other complimentary websites and staff Ensure that there is always a minimum of two staff members trained in web publishing to support each other (larger websites may need multiple people to maintain the information accordingly, however there should still be additional people trained in those areas to fill in as needed)
Additional information about Steps 1-3 can be found at:
http://www.decs.sa.gov.au/onlineservices/pages/creatingweb
GOOD WEBSITES ARE TASK BASED RESOURCES Good websites are not marketing tools or online business cards detailing organisational bureaucracy such as roles and responsibilities. Good websites help their customers perform work-related tasks quickly and efficiently. When deciding what information needs to be on a website consider what 3-5 tasks your customers will come to your website to do, these tasks will be the basis of your website. At times this may not be a Business Unit’s core responsibilities but it will be more appreciated by customers than organisation-centric information like organisational structures or detailed implementation plans. Once these tasks are identified, information architecture and content can be created.
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Content that is not relevant to any tasks performed by a majority of customers is not necessary on a Business Units’ website. INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE Information architecture is the foundation of the navigation in a good website. It is essentially dictates how your website will be used and acts as a blueprint of content. A website’s information should be taskbased. When developing appropriate information architecture you should consider: • • • • what content is needed by your customers how the content is structured how the content is represented how the content will be used
A website's information architecture defines how the various sections and content elements are related and forms a hierarchy of usefulness. Useful content is placed higher in the hierarchy and therefore made more accessible by being placed closer to the "front" (or "homepage" of the website). Information architecture is the basis of a website’s navigation. The four basic steps in organising information are as follows: • • • • divide the information into logical units establish how these units of information are structured in a functional way establish a hierarchy of usefulness use the hierarchy to work out how each piece of information relates to other pieces
Further information about developing Information Architecture for a website can be found at:
http://www.steptwo.com.au/papers/kmc_whatisinfoarch/ and http://www.webmonkey.com/tutorial/Information_Architecture_Tutorial
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DEVELOPING THE INFORMATION MAP Having established the information architecture requirements, the next step is to develop a 'map' of the information. If there is no clear sense of order most customers will not use/revisit the site more than once. Information should be organized in a hierarchy, relative to the customer’s needs. A hierarchy is probably the best way to organise complex bodies of information, in terms of navigating website, as most users will be familiar and comfortable with this type of structure. Most blocks of information should be ranked by importance, and organised by their relationships with other blocks of information. Start with the most important or most general concepts and branch down to the more specific or optional topics. For example:
Home Who We Are Services Our Staff Contact Information 1.0 Home becomes 1.1 Who We Are 1.1.1 Our Staff 1.1.2 Contact Information 1.2 Services
Hint: Grouping the information items during the mapping process can be done easily by using Post-It notes with individual information items written on them. These can then be moved or rearranged as needed until the preferred structure is found. DEVELOPING THE NAVIGATION MAP How the blocks of information will then be accessed is also an important consideration. A Navigation Map will reflect way the hierarchy of pages will be set out on the site; pages ranked highly in the Information Map will be more accessible than lowly ranked pages. For example, using the Information Map above, the Navigation Map may look something like the diagram below and may also include images, links to documents, links between pages within the site as well as links to pages on other/external websites:
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The success of a website largely depends on how well its organisation matches customers’ expectations. A logical site allows customers to successfully predict where to find certain information and encourages them to re-use the site, based on this positive outcome. Also consider that Cognitive Load theory postulates that when provided with a set of choices greater than 5, the difficulty of making a choice increases. To make it easier for customers navigating through a website, try on and provide a maximum of 5 to 8 choices at any one level of information. When constructing the navigation menus it is important to get the correct 'depth'. If the navigation structure is too deep information will be buried, if the structure is too shallow it will be equally as difficult to locate. CONTENT DEVELOPMENT Content is composed of various structural elements that are used to inform customers about the website they are visiting. Content can be made up of text, images, and links to documents or other websites. Ideally, information should be broken up into 'chunks' that present a single idea or concept. Considerations when developing content may include: • • • • • • • Who is the primary audience? How will they access the information? What information do they require? What are the expected outcomes? What supporting information might they require? How will they use the information? How will they interact with the system?
Answering these questions will result in a clear statement of the end customer's requirements and the presentation of the content on the site. CONTENT PRESENTATION The presentation of any subweb must be appealing to a wide audience. The average web user, whether a member of the general public, a teacher or an corporate employee, comes to a site to access information or to perform a task, both of which they want to do as quickly and easily as possible. Simplifying pages and making sites easier to navigate and use will produce far greater benefits for most Business Units in marketing and less work supporting customers through time-consuming email and phone conservations. Usability is the key factor in determining website presentation. To enhance usability, the following aspects should be included in subweb content development: • • • Logical and natural organisation of information: clear task-based structure, clear and meaningful labels for information Efficient navigation: the amount of time and effort the customer needs to exert in order to move around the site and locate specific information Spelling and grammar should always be accurate. Spell checking is essential, however proof reading of content should always be undertaken before publication
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USE OF PAGE AND SECTION DESCRIPTIONS Both Page Summary and Section descriptions can provide customers with valuable information about a webpage. A list of links to files doesn't mean much on its own, however adding a brief paragraph (which usually only needs to be a couple of sentences) to either your Page Summary or Section description (or, in some cases, both) can give customers the appropriate context for the links on a page. Answering questions like the ones below will enhance the information provided on a page and allow customers to access the documents provided without questioning the validity of the information. • • • • What are the contents of the documents? How do these documents relate to others on the page? Are the documents current? How are these documents used?
CONTENT GROUPS, PARENT ITEMS, CHILD ITEMS AND SECTIONS When developing content within the Gener8 publishing tool there are four levels of navigation which can be utilised.
Content Groups
This is the top level of navigation and consists of unique sets of parent and child items. Content groups are only necessary when content is large and consists of more than one large concept, topic or in some cases, audience group. Access to content groups is constant since the content group links remain in the banner and are visible no matter where the customer goes within the site.
Parent Items
Parent items are pages that contain the bulk of information and are linked from the left navigation bar. These items are dependent on the current content group and can contain Child items. Information belonging to a Parent item can be presented in Sections.
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Child Items
A Child item is also a page, but one that is essentially a sub-element of the related Parent item and containing more specific information than the related Parent Item. Child items both can contain sections, images and links.
Sections
Sections reside in Parent and Child items and are the basic 'chunks' of information. Sections can be made up of text that presents a single idea or concept, images or hyperlinks. For example, see the Training Course page from the Online Communication Services website:
http://www.decs.sa.gov.au/onlineservices/pages/Training/
WRITING FOR THE WEB Reading from the screen is quite different than reading paper-based text. Online content is scanned, not read word for word. Writing therefore must be concise and structured and not just a duplication of the paper-based format. Three tutorials on Writing for the Web can be found at
• • • http://www.useit.com/papers/webwriting/ http://www.outfront.net/tutorials_02/design/web_writing.htm http://www.websitecriteria.com/Website_guidelines/website_writing_guide.html
Specialist contractors can be hired to "write" important web content, however this can be expensive and an external individual doesn't always have the appropriate knowledge base for the task.
Basic Attributes of Online Writing
Some basic attributes of good online writing are as follows:
Style and Language
• • • • • • • •
A writing style familiar to the audience Each page is limited to a single concept or idea Simple and concise text with minimal conjunctions and punctuation Short sentences and page lengths Grouping paragraphs using section headings Meaningful headings Keep text left aligned Language is driven by the audience and not the organisation. o When writing for parents use terms they are familiar; kindies, schools and text books not preschools, sites and resources. o Jargon should be kept to a minimum o Acronyms should be defined on every page
Punctuation
• • •
Minimal punctuation Single quotation marks, not double Reduced prepositions and conjunctions
Grammar and Writing
• •
Keep text concise and simple Use short sentences
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• • • • •
Dot Points
Use single sentence ideas Incorporate lists and dot points where possible Include the main idea in the first sentence of the paragraph and then use the following sentences to expand the main point Avoid qualifiers (ie almost, very, quite, and often) Be consistent with your tenses and viewpoint
• • •
Use plain English Avoid using colons and semicolons Punctuate self-contained sentences (upper case to begin with and a full stop to end)
Abbreviations and Acronyms
Abbreviations should be avoided wherever possible. In the case of acronyms, because people don't view web pages in a straightforward fashion (any page could be their first), the first instance of any acronym on each page should be provided in full with the acronym in brackets after it, for example Department of Education and Children’s Services (DECS). After that the acronym can then be used for the remainder of the page.
Headings (Page and Section Titles)
• •
Headings should be lower case, except for the first letter of the first word (initial capitalisation) and proper nouns Do not use full stops after headings
Use of Graphics/Images
• •
•
Images should be used sparingly as not to distract customers accessing information Images should be used only to replace content that can not be communicated through text such as o Maps o Graphs o Thumbnails of promotional materials Images within the DECS Gener8 publishing tool are limited to a width of 500 pixels
WEBSITE LINKS The overall quality of links (whether they work, whether they go to relevant information discussed on a webpage) strongly influences people's opinion of the value of a website. If a site does not work well, customers will abandon it. Link text should be descriptive; terms link “click here” are unnecessary and patronising, customers know they need to click hypertext to access information. All links must go to the expected document or website. All external links must be labelled as such (within the DECS Gener8 publishing tool this can be done using the appropriate settings in Link Maintenance) and tested at regular intervals. No website should contain broken links. • Link text should succinctly describe where they link is taking the customer
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• •
•
•
When providing links to other agencies, text provided at the link must make it clear that the customer is leaving the DECS website Written consent should be sought from the owners/administrators for links to non-Government websites Links to commercial websites may be provided and are subject to Cabinet Circular 0023, which can be found at: http://www.premcab.sa.gov.au/dpc/publications_circulars.html Links to documents and non-DECS website must always open in a new browser window, and text must be provided at the point of the link, highlighting the nature of the relationship to the agency, or to the Government of South Australia LINKED DOCUMENTS When linking to or uploading any document on a Unit's website, Publishers should ensure that the following points are taken into account: • • • • • All documents made available online are the most current version Links to resources and sites located within documents (Word & PDF files) are correct Files larger than 2MB in size are specified as such as part of the hyperlink text; for example District contact listing (PDF, 2.5MB) Filenames are not overly long (the publishing system will truncate any filename over 26 characters and put underscores in place of spaces), and avoid spaces (underscores can be used instead of spaces if desired) It is good practice, but not essential, to use all lowercase for filenames
PERSONAL PRIVACY ISSUES DECS is committed to protecting privacy as defined in the Government’s Information Privacy Principles:
http://www.privacy.gov.au/publications/ipps.html
• •
•
Customers are not identified but the DECS Internet Service Provider records the number of visits made to the site and the technical attributes of users (browser version, country of origin, etc). Customers who send email to a DECS subweb administrator cannot have their email addresses used without their consent except to respond to the initial query. Any personal information such as email address or phone number should not be published without the subject’s permission.
USE OF PHOTOS Departmental sites regularly obtain and use video footage/photos/other images of children/students for a variety of promotional activities, including for publications, promotional material, websites and advertisements. The following guidelines should be followed: • • • A current consent form must be signed by the parent or guardian prior to the taking of images of any child/student who is under the age of 18 years Sites must ensure each child shown in the image has a signed consent form. eg. a photo of a group of students undertaking an activity where 6 students have a consent form and 1 does not. The image cannot be used unless consent is obtained for each student Images of students/children on a website must have a signed consent form as stated above and the image should not include any names identifying any of the children/students in the image and care must be taken not to reveal personal information about the subjects. Currently only identification
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•
of the school can be used or words describing the activity (eg. Students from Woodville High School performing at the Come Out festival) Photos across the website must be socially inclusive, a range of genders, races and ages must be shown.
The consent form can be downloaded from:
http://www.decs.sa.gov.au/docs/documents/1/ConsentFormTalentReleaseF.doc
COPYRIGHT AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ISSUES DECS owns the intellectual property of original material or information published on its websites. This includes enhancements made to information originating elsewhere. Intellectual property is protected under statute law. Information originating from elsewhere can be published if the author or copyright owner gives permission to use the information. This permission must include a statement that the supplied material does not infringe a third party’s copyright. The Australian Copyright Council has published a variety of useful resources including information sheets, “Governments (Commonwealth & State) & Copyright” and “Creating websites and publishing on the Internet”. The Council also has published more detailed books on these subjects which are available for purchase. These publications are available on the Council's website and are recommended to agencies that require more detailed information on copyright. http://www.copyright.org.au/ UPDATING WEBSITES Websites require regular review, particularly to keep the content relevant and up-to-date. As mandated by State Government web-based content such as websites and documents must be reviewed at least once every 6 months. Where no changes are apparent or required, the modification date must be updated to reflect that the content has been reviewed and is considered current. Online Communication Services has implemented the Page and Document Review Functionality which will advise page owners and website administrators through automated emails whenever content currency review has not been undertaken. Information must be reliable, concise and consistent with publication standards expected within any other form of DECS publication. The following dot points are taken from the Content Review Checklist that should be completed at each review. The Checklist can be downloaded from:
http://www.decs.sa.gov.au/onlineservices/pages/publishers/maintenance/
• • • • • •
Information and contact details for the Service Group and/or Business Units represented via the subweb are correct and up-to-date. All inaccurate, out of date information, empty pages and “under construction” pages are removed from web pages. A valid email address is used in the footer of the subweb pages for customers to contact the Service Group and Business Unit. Links to resources and sites located within documents (Word & PDF files) are correct. The "external link disclaimer" has been added to all external non-DECS links. All hyperlinks are checked regularly and any broken links are either removed or corrected.
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• • • •
All documents made available online must be the most current version. Ensure there are no breaches of copyright, particularly in the use of images. Appropriate key words are included via Page Maintenance. The Date Modified in the footer of all web pages is "current".
Further information can be found via the DECS Web Factsheets and Manuals page at:
http://www.decs.sa.gov.au/onlineservices/pages/publishers/webfactsheets/
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Created by: Mark Selan Version 2.1 Date Last Modified: August 2008
WEBSITE CONTENT DEVELOPMENT & MAINTENANCE GUIDELINES
This document provides information to subweb administrators and publishers in the creation and maintenance of a subweb’s information architecture and content using the agency's corporate content management system, Gener8.
RELATED DOCUMENT
The Government-wide information in this document is based on the Government Website Standards and Protocols document:
http://www.cio.sa.gov.au/policies-and-standards/applications-and-internet/cto_s5-2_sa_government_website_standards.pdf
OVERVIEW OF SUBWEB CONTENT DEVELOPMENT
OVERVIEW OF SUBWEB CONTENT DEVELOPMENT STEP 1: PLANNING When considering a website the Business Unit must be able to answer the following: • • • • • • • • Why have a website? Who is the target audience? What does the target audience want/need from the website? Who will be responsible for the creation/addition of content as well as the ongoing maintenance for the website? What information will go on the website? What is the budget for the website (this should include a provision for the costs of ongoing maintenance ie staffing cost)? What are the graphical requirements of the website? Will it require an individual banner graphic (if so, then the additional cost of a graphic designer should be added to the budget estimate)? When will the website be required?
STEP 2: DEVELOPMENT The Business Unit then needs to contact Online Communication Services to discuss their website needs and help to resolve the following issues: • • The creation of a project brief & project initiation form (including costs and a project plan) Seek Executive Director or Director’s written approval as appropriate
Website Content Development and Maintenance Standards Version 2 — August 2008
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• • • • •
Know the end customer’s language, needs, etc before developing the information architecture What deployment(s) will best serve the intended audience (eg Portal, intranet, SSONet)? How much space is required (eg a web page or two, a separate content group, a full subweb)? What Policies, Procedures & Standards will affect the development of the subweb, particularly in regards to accessibility and graphics use? Is there any specialist functionality required within in the site, eg forums, multimedia, etc
STEP 3: CONSTRUCTION With the help of Online Communication Services, the Business Unit can now: • • • • If applicable, arrange to have the subweb created Register staff for web publishing training Begin adding content to the new website If applicable, work through Online Communication Services to get three quotes from graphic designers and begin developing a unique banner graphic (see the Subweb Visual Design Standards for more information)
STEP 4: LAUNCHING & ONGOING MAINTENANCE Following its creation and to ensure that the web presence stays relevant, and its content remains current, the following actions are recommended: • • • • • Develop a marketing plan to let users know that the project, Business Unit or Service Group is now online Update the website content regularly to ensure accuracy and relevancy Check all links to external sites (including other DECS Units) on a regular basis to ensure they’re still working using Page Review functionality. Develop networks with other complimentary websites and staff Ensure that there is always a minimum of two staff members trained in web publishing to support each other (larger websites may need multiple people to maintain the information accordingly, however there should still be additional people trained in those areas to fill in as needed)
Additional information about Steps 1-3 can be found at:
http://www.decs.sa.gov.au/onlineservices/pages/creatingweb
GOOD WEBSITES ARE TASK BASED RESOURCES Good websites are not marketing tools or online business cards detailing organisational bureaucracy such as roles and responsibilities. Good websites help their customers perform work-related tasks quickly and efficiently. When deciding what information needs to be on a website consider what 3-5 tasks your customers will come to your website to do, these tasks will be the basis of your website. At times this may not be a Business Unit’s core responsibilities but it will be more appreciated by customers than organisation-centric information like organisational structures or detailed implementation plans. Once these tasks are identified, information architecture and content can be created.
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Content that is not relevant to any tasks performed by a majority of customers is not necessary on a Business Units’ website. INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE Information architecture is the foundation of the navigation in a good website. It is essentially dictates how your website will be used and acts as a blueprint of content. A website’s information should be taskbased. When developing appropriate information architecture you should consider: • • • • what content is needed by your customers how the content is structured how the content is represented how the content will be used
A website's information architecture defines how the various sections and content elements are related and forms a hierarchy of usefulness. Useful content is placed higher in the hierarchy and therefore made more accessible by being placed closer to the "front" (or "homepage" of the website). Information architecture is the basis of a website’s navigation. The four basic steps in organising information are as follows: • • • • divide the information into logical units establish how these units of information are structured in a functional way establish a hierarchy of usefulness use the hierarchy to work out how each piece of information relates to other pieces
Further information about developing Information Architecture for a website can be found at:
http://www.steptwo.com.au/papers/kmc_whatisinfoarch/ and http://www.webmonkey.com/tutorial/Information_Architecture_Tutorial
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DEVELOPING THE INFORMATION MAP Having established the information architecture requirements, the next step is to develop a 'map' of the information. If there is no clear sense of order most customers will not use/revisit the site more than once. Information should be organized in a hierarchy, relative to the customer’s needs. A hierarchy is probably the best way to organise complex bodies of information, in terms of navigating website, as most users will be familiar and comfortable with this type of structure. Most blocks of information should be ranked by importance, and organised by their relationships with other blocks of information. Start with the most important or most general concepts and branch down to the more specific or optional topics. For example:
Home Who We Are Services Our Staff Contact Information 1.0 Home becomes 1.1 Who We Are 1.1.1 Our Staff 1.1.2 Contact Information 1.2 Services
Hint: Grouping the information items during the mapping process can be done easily by using Post-It notes with individual information items written on them. These can then be moved or rearranged as needed until the preferred structure is found. DEVELOPING THE NAVIGATION MAP How the blocks of information will then be accessed is also an important consideration. A Navigation Map will reflect way the hierarchy of pages will be set out on the site; pages ranked highly in the Information Map will be more accessible than lowly ranked pages. For example, using the Information Map above, the Navigation Map may look something like the diagram below and may also include images, links to documents, links between pages within the site as well as links to pages on other/external websites:
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The success of a website largely depends on how well its organisation matches customers’ expectations. A logical site allows customers to successfully predict where to find certain information and encourages them to re-use the site, based on this positive outcome. Also consider that Cognitive Load theory postulates that when provided with a set of choices greater than 5, the difficulty of making a choice increases. To make it easier for customers navigating through a website, try on and provide a maximum of 5 to 8 choices at any one level of information. When constructing the navigation menus it is important to get the correct 'depth'. If the navigation structure is too deep information will be buried, if the structure is too shallow it will be equally as difficult to locate. CONTENT DEVELOPMENT Content is composed of various structural elements that are used to inform customers about the website they are visiting. Content can be made up of text, images, and links to documents or other websites. Ideally, information should be broken up into 'chunks' that present a single idea or concept. Considerations when developing content may include: • • • • • • • Who is the primary audience? How will they access the information? What information do they require? What are the expected outcomes? What supporting information might they require? How will they use the information? How will they interact with the system?
Answering these questions will result in a clear statement of the end customer's requirements and the presentation of the content on the site. CONTENT PRESENTATION The presentation of any subweb must be appealing to a wide audience. The average web user, whether a member of the general public, a teacher or an corporate employee, comes to a site to access information or to perform a task, both of which they want to do as quickly and easily as possible. Simplifying pages and making sites easier to navigate and use will produce far greater benefits for most Business Units in marketing and less work supporting customers through time-consuming email and phone conservations. Usability is the key factor in determining website presentation. To enhance usability, the following aspects should be included in subweb content development: • • • Logical and natural organisation of information: clear task-based structure, clear and meaningful labels for information Efficient navigation: the amount of time and effort the customer needs to exert in order to move around the site and locate specific information Spelling and grammar should always be accurate. Spell checking is essential, however proof reading of content should always be undertaken before publication
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USE OF PAGE AND SECTION DESCRIPTIONS Both Page Summary and Section descriptions can provide customers with valuable information about a webpage. A list of links to files doesn't mean much on its own, however adding a brief paragraph (which usually only needs to be a couple of sentences) to either your Page Summary or Section description (or, in some cases, both) can give customers the appropriate context for the links on a page. Answering questions like the ones below will enhance the information provided on a page and allow customers to access the documents provided without questioning the validity of the information. • • • • What are the contents of the documents? How do these documents relate to others on the page? Are the documents current? How are these documents used?
CONTENT GROUPS, PARENT ITEMS, CHILD ITEMS AND SECTIONS When developing content within the Gener8 publishing tool there are four levels of navigation which can be utilised.
Content Groups
This is the top level of navigation and consists of unique sets of parent and child items. Content groups are only necessary when content is large and consists of more than one large concept, topic or in some cases, audience group. Access to content groups is constant since the content group links remain in the banner and are visible no matter where the customer goes within the site.
Parent Items
Parent items are pages that contain the bulk of information and are linked from the left navigation bar. These items are dependent on the current content group and can contain Child items. Information belonging to a Parent item can be presented in Sections.
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Child Items
A Child item is also a page, but one that is essentially a sub-element of the related Parent item and containing more specific information than the related Parent Item. Child items both can contain sections, images and links.
Sections
Sections reside in Parent and Child items and are the basic 'chunks' of information. Sections can be made up of text that presents a single idea or concept, images or hyperlinks. For example, see the Training Course page from the Online Communication Services website:
http://www.decs.sa.gov.au/onlineservices/pages/Training/
WRITING FOR THE WEB Reading from the screen is quite different than reading paper-based text. Online content is scanned, not read word for word. Writing therefore must be concise and structured and not just a duplication of the paper-based format. Three tutorials on Writing for the Web can be found at
• • • http://www.useit.com/papers/webwriting/ http://www.outfront.net/tutorials_02/design/web_writing.htm http://www.websitecriteria.com/Website_guidelines/website_writing_guide.html
Specialist contractors can be hired to "write" important web content, however this can be expensive and an external individual doesn't always have the appropriate knowledge base for the task.
Basic Attributes of Online Writing
Some basic attributes of good online writing are as follows:
Style and Language
• • • • • • • •
A writing style familiar to the audience Each page is limited to a single concept or idea Simple and concise text with minimal conjunctions and punctuation Short sentences and page lengths Grouping paragraphs using section headings Meaningful headings Keep text left aligned Language is driven by the audience and not the organisation. o When writing for parents use terms they are familiar; kindies, schools and text books not preschools, sites and resources. o Jargon should be kept to a minimum o Acronyms should be defined on every page
Punctuation
• • •
Minimal punctuation Single quotation marks, not double Reduced prepositions and conjunctions
Grammar and Writing
• •
Keep text concise and simple Use short sentences
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• • • • •
Dot Points
Use single sentence ideas Incorporate lists and dot points where possible Include the main idea in the first sentence of the paragraph and then use the following sentences to expand the main point Avoid qualifiers (ie almost, very, quite, and often) Be consistent with your tenses and viewpoint
• • •
Use plain English Avoid using colons and semicolons Punctuate self-contained sentences (upper case to begin with and a full stop to end)
Abbreviations and Acronyms
Abbreviations should be avoided wherever possible. In the case of acronyms, because people don't view web pages in a straightforward fashion (any page could be their first), the first instance of any acronym on each page should be provided in full with the acronym in brackets after it, for example Department of Education and Children’s Services (DECS). After that the acronym can then be used for the remainder of the page.
Headings (Page and Section Titles)
• •
Headings should be lower case, except for the first letter of the first word (initial capitalisation) and proper nouns Do not use full stops after headings
Use of Graphics/Images
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Images should be used sparingly as not to distract customers accessing information Images should be used only to replace content that can not be communicated through text such as o Maps o Graphs o Thumbnails of promotional materials Images within the DECS Gener8 publishing tool are limited to a width of 500 pixels
WEBSITE LINKS The overall quality of links (whether they work, whether they go to relevant information discussed on a webpage) strongly influences people's opinion of the value of a website. If a site does not work well, customers will abandon it. Link text should be descriptive; terms link “click here” are unnecessary and patronising, customers know they need to click hypertext to access information. All links must go to the expected document or website. All external links must be labelled as such (within the DECS Gener8 publishing tool this can be done using the appropriate settings in Link Maintenance) and tested at regular intervals. No website should contain broken links. • Link text should succinctly describe where they link is taking the customer
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When providing links to other agencies, text provided at the link must make it clear that the customer is leaving the DECS website Written consent should be sought from the owners/administrators for links to non-Government websites Links to commercial websites may be provided and are subject to Cabinet Circular 0023, which can be found at: http://www.premcab.sa.gov.au/dpc/publications_circulars.html Links to documents and non-DECS website must always open in a new browser window, and text must be provided at the point of the link, highlighting the nature of the relationship to the agency, or to the Government of South Australia LINKED DOCUMENTS When linking to or uploading any document on a Unit's website, Publishers should ensure that the following points are taken into account: • • • • • All documents made available online are the most current version Links to resources and sites located within documents (Word & PDF files) are correct Files larger than 2MB in size are specified as such as part of the hyperlink text; for example District contact listing (PDF, 2.5MB) Filenames are not overly long (the publishing system will truncate any filename over 26 characters and put underscores in place of spaces), and avoid spaces (underscores can be used instead of spaces if desired) It is good practice, but not essential, to use all lowercase for filenames
PERSONAL PRIVACY ISSUES DECS is committed to protecting privacy as defined in the Government’s Information Privacy Principles:
http://www.privacy.gov.au/publications/ipps.html
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Customers are not identified but the DECS Internet Service Provider records the number of visits made to the site and the technical attributes of users (browser version, country of origin, etc). Customers who send email to a DECS subweb administrator cannot have their email addresses used without their consent except to respond to the initial query. Any personal information such as email address or phone number should not be published without the subject’s permission.
USE OF PHOTOS Departmental sites regularly obtain and use video footage/photos/other images of children/students for a variety of promotional activities, including for publications, promotional material, websites and advertisements. The following guidelines should be followed: • • • A current consent form must be signed by the parent or guardian prior to the taking of images of any child/student who is under the age of 18 years Sites must ensure each child shown in the image has a signed consent form. eg. a photo of a group of students undertaking an activity where 6 students have a consent form and 1 does not. The image cannot be used unless consent is obtained for each student Images of students/children on a website must have a signed consent form as stated above and the image should not include any names identifying any of the children/students in the image and care must be taken not to reveal personal information about the subjects. Currently only identification
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of the school can be used or words describing the activity (eg. Students from Woodville High School performing at the Come Out festival) Photos across the website must be socially inclusive, a range of genders, races and ages must be shown.
The consent form can be downloaded from:
http://www.decs.sa.gov.au/docs/documents/1/ConsentFormTalentReleaseF.doc
COPYRIGHT AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ISSUES DECS owns the intellectual property of original material or information published on its websites. This includes enhancements made to information originating elsewhere. Intellectual property is protected under statute law. Information originating from elsewhere can be published if the author or copyright owner gives permission to use the information. This permission must include a statement that the supplied material does not infringe a third party’s copyright. The Australian Copyright Council has published a variety of useful resources including information sheets, “Governments (Commonwealth & State) & Copyright” and “Creating websites and publishing on the Internet”. The Council also has published more detailed books on these subjects which are available for purchase. These publications are available on the Council's website and are recommended to agencies that require more detailed information on copyright. http://www.copyright.org.au/ UPDATING WEBSITES Websites require regular review, particularly to keep the content relevant and up-to-date. As mandated by State Government web-based content such as websites and documents must be reviewed at least once every 6 months. Where no changes are apparent or required, the modification date must be updated to reflect that the content has been reviewed and is considered current. Online Communication Services has implemented the Page and Document Review Functionality which will advise page owners and website administrators through automated emails whenever content currency review has not been undertaken. Information must be reliable, concise and consistent with publication standards expected within any other form of DECS publication. The following dot points are taken from the Content Review Checklist that should be completed at each review. The Checklist can be downloaded from:
http://www.decs.sa.gov.au/onlineservices/pages/publishers/maintenance/
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Information and contact details for the Service Group and/or Business Units represented via the subweb are correct and up-to-date. All inaccurate, out of date information, empty pages and “under construction” pages are removed from web pages. A valid email address is used in the footer of the subweb pages for customers to contact the Service Group and Business Unit. Links to resources and sites located within documents (Word & PDF files) are correct. The "external link disclaimer" has been added to all external non-DECS links. All hyperlinks are checked regularly and any broken links are either removed or corrected.
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All documents made available online must be the most current version. Ensure there are no breaches of copyright, particularly in the use of images. Appropriate key words are included via Page Maintenance. The Date Modified in the footer of all web pages is "current".
Further information can be found via the DECS Web Factsheets and Manuals page at:
http://www.decs.sa.gov.au/onlineservices/pages/publishers/webfactsheets/
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