CLF definition sub-group
Meeting
Date: Nov.15, 2007, Time: 1:30-3:00, Location: MC 2009
Attendees: Guillermo Fuentes, Glenn Anderson, Kelley Teahen, Megan McDermott, Kevin Paxman, Heather Wey, Alan Kirker, Pat Lafranier
Regrets: Isaac Morland, Andrew Smith, Paul Snyder, Jason Greatrex, Matt Regehr
Agenda:
- minutes past meeting
- Megan and Kevin: update re: error msgs and copyright
- Isaac and Glenn: what defines a top level website and when does it apply
- Pat and Jason: draft a chart to summarize our CLF discussions: what's current, what can change now, and what needs to wait for the next template revision.
Discussion
- Approval of minutes of past meeting.
Copyright (Kevin and Megan)
- The current copyright in the footer on the UW homepage '© 1992-2007 University of Waterloo' is a link to a disclaimer issued from UWinfo.
- Kevin confirmed that any page published is copyright.
- Should we recommend that all pages have the copyright notice and link in the footer?
- The Secretariat stated that a statement of "© University of Waterloo" would be enough.
- The Office of Research has a lawyer on staff that can provide advice regarding copyright issues.
- Kevin also mentioned that material on Waterloo web pages is copyright by the author. However, the University of Waterloo copyright overrides and therefore any other use of the material by University of Waterloo is allowed.
- Pat asked if Kevin and Megan could obtain something on best practices.
- Kelley mentioned that the University copyright disclaimer should have a link to a contact email rather than just a phone number.
- Kevin found 2001 SEW course notes "Designing a Web Site" that state any University of Waterloo web page should link to the Waterloo copyright disclaimer.
- Kevin also found that a University of Waterloo CLF Twiki template produced in ES links to the Waterloo copyright disclaimer.
Error messages (Kevin and Megan)
- Megan investigated custom 404 pages on UW sites (Housing, Psychology, Graphics, International, CPA, ES & others)
- She made a custom 404 page that could be used as a guideline for other sites.
- It was suggested that it could be customized per unit and could also include a link to the site index if there is one.
- Glenn suggested that it could also state the URL they typed or perform a search of the site from the URL they entered.
- Kevin noted that it wouldn't be easy for the average user to place a search box in the 404 page.
Note after meeting: do we need to extend investigation to other common error messages displayed, such as 500 Internet Server Error, 400 Bad Request and 403 Forbidden message, etc. as stated in previous minutes.
What defines a top-level web page? (Glenn and Isaac)
Isaac outlined their findings in an email before the meeting, copies were provided to all by Pat. It was agreed upon that a top-level web page could be defined as:
- Any site with a root level URL is considered a top-level website (ie: what.ever.uwaterloo.ca);
- It was agreed that exceptions to this would include corporate apps and custom web applications;
- Any site that has a unit title differing from its parent website;
- Any site that has a different left hand navigation from its parent website.
What does this imply (Glenn and Isaac)
A top-level page must have:
- a custom banner graphic (unique to its unit);
- its own unit title image linking to the unit's top level page;
- a 'contact' link in the footer that will take you to the person responsible for the unit's website;
- its own navigation.
Every non-top-level page must have:
- no banner graphic (other images within the body of the page are fine);
- the same unit title (and link) as the rest of its site;
- the same 'contact' link in the footer as the rest of its site;
- the same navigation as the rest of its site.
CLF guidelines: what's current, what can change now, and what should change in a future CLF
The first draft of a chart put together by Pat and Jason was handed out. Some discussion ensued in general regarding how the 'rules' could be enforced if put in place. The chart was broken down into elements:
- header
- image
- navigation
- footer
- additional
The group went through the elements of header, and image.
Header elements
Unversity of Waterloo logo
- should be a specified size
- documentation should point web content managers to Waterloo logo standards
Search
- Waterloo search should link to University of Waterloo search (there seem to be many renditions of this and not one standard)
- should a drop-down search menu be allowed?
- should an additional search be allowed (not site specific)
- no - database searches should be only available in the content
- there was a note to re-visit any exceptions (ie. Library)
Unit title
- must be an image
- must link to the top level page of the unit
- the unit title should be consistent across the site
- a maximum size specification should be enforced
- if we allow a multi-line unit title, a custom CSS would be required to reposition it in the header (the header area should be a specified size)
- for the next CLF we should look at a replacement for the chosen (hard to get) unit font
Image elements
Collage/banner
- one image or multiple images are allowed in a banner
- specify that the image should be saved as the specified size and not adjusted to size by the browser
- is Flash allowed?
- if Flash is used make sure there is an alternative for visitors that turn off flash/javascript.
-- HeatherWey - 15 Nov 2007