Common Look & Feel (CLF) definition January 23 2008

CLF definition sub-group

Meeting

Date: January 23, 2008 Time: 9:30am-10:30am Location: MC 5158A

Attendees: Guillermo Fuentes, Glenn Anderson, Megan McDermott, Kevin Paxman, Heather Wey, Alan Kirker, Pat Lafranier, Andrew Smith, Jason Greatrex, Matt Regehr, Paul Snyder, Eva Grabinski,
Regrets: Kelley Teahen, Isaac Morland

Agenda:

  • Discussion of Web Advisory Committee CLF Sub-Group Report - Draft

Discussion

  • Recommended changes and additions made to the Web Advisory Committee CLF Sub-Group Report (attachment below).
  • Discussion continued to the "Footer Elements".
  • Global changes to the report:
    • Sub-heading change: "Current" to "CLF Standard".
    • Additional sub-heading labeled "Observation" added. New heading will provide justification for recommendations but will avoid citing specific URLs.
    • Sub-heading change: "Future" to "Future Considerations".
    • Global wording change in all incidents of "mandatory at all three levels" to "mandatory on all three levels".
  • Header Elements:
    • University of Waterloo logo | Current | added: mandatory to use image supplied with the template.
    • University of Waterloo logo | Recommend | terminology clarification: technically called a logo not a crest.
    • University of Waterloo logo | Future Considerations | added: modify logo.
    • Search box | CLF Standard | added: - clearly labeled as to the search content (examples: “University of Waterloo Search”, “Arts Search”, “Find Someone at University of Waterloo”)
    • Unit title | Future Considerations | added: Consider the use of regular text – instead of a graphic – as the unit title for usability and accessibility. The use of text – rather than a graphic – enhances usability and accessibility by facilitating better and clearer resizing of the words, and header tags (instead of image alt tags) in the code better facilitate accessibility for those using screen-readers. A standardized default font and size can be specified in CSS that controls the look of the unit title to help achieve a consistent graphics look-and-feel across University of Waterloo websites – taking into account that fonts render slightly differently across browsers and platforms.
  • Image:
    • title change - collage/photo (aka banner).
    • Image | Recommend | added: default image to be provided as per CLF standards.
    • Image | Recommend | added: specify position – below unit title and above content
    • Image | Future Considerations | added: reconsider the position and size of the banner image in the University of Waterloo website template. This will be impacted by the width and layout of a new template, which is addressed in the “Template” section of this document. Reconsideration is recommended due to higher screen-resolutions and the related wider-standard widths of websites. Consideration should be given to the target audiences of University of Waterloo websites since this will impact on template dimensions, and hence banner-image size. As well, reconsideration should be given to the aspect ratio (in other words, the width-to-height ratio) of the banner image; concern has been expressed that it is hard to find and crop images that work well within the current banner-image aspect ratio (Eva).
    • Secure Images | Future Considerations | added: universal method to link images for next revision.
  • Navigation Elements:
    • title clarification: Left Hand Main Navigation
    • Left Hand Main Navigation | Recommend | clarify: left navigation unless the page requires a “full view”, such as an instructional page, complex on-line forms, the daily bulletin which is recognized as a termination page, etc.
    • Left Hand Main Navigation | Recommend | added: must not be a “fly-out” nor pop-up menus due to accessibility issues.
    • Left Hand Main Navigation | Recommend | clarification – CLF Standards state: “It is strongly recommended that no more than seven items appear on the primary menu, and nine or fewer on the submenus.” The WebOps site: Building Your Navigation menu > states "no more than seven to nine items appear on the primary menu”.
    • Left Hand Main Navigation | Recommend | clarification: top bar “content title” should contain text to match navigation menu.
    • Left Hand Main Navigation | Future Considerations | added: clarify requirement of a left-hand “home menu item”
    • Left Hand Main Navigation | Future Considerations | 3. consider the inclusion of a breadcrumb path at the top of the web page to assist users with navigation. Breadcrumb paths are becoming more common with increased inside-website-page landings as a way to assist users with navigation. Consideration is being given to breadcrumb paths by the Website Advisory Committee’s Navigation Working Group.
    • Secondary Navigation | Future Considerations | should consider guidelines or limits in future implementations.
    • Tertiary Navigation | Recommend | added: not allowed off right from second level menu and no footer menus.
  • Footer Elements:
    • Official Unit Address Including UW Campus Location | Recommend | full unit address, including building, extension, phone format.
  • Further investigation required:
    • Header | Search box | a central search engine or a utility flexible to search multiple domains and its implementation within the CLF definition (Kevin, Megan and Glenn will investigate).
    • Header | Unit Title: if a multi-level title: link to top level of unit's main site; state min-max size; must be a graphic (Kevin).
    • Header | Unit Title: possible replacement for current proprietary unit font (Eidetic Neo Regular).
    • Image | Collage: make available an image gallery, investigate press release agreement (Megan).
    • Left Hand Main Navigation: clarification – CLF Standards state: “It is strongly recommended that no more than seven items appear on the primary menu, and nine or fewer on the submenus.” The WebOps site: Building Your Navigation menu > states "no more than seven to nine items appear on the primary menu”.
    • Left Hand Main Navigation: clarify requirement of a left-hand “home menu item”.
  • Discussion ended at "Footer elements".
  • Web Advisory Committee CLF Sub-Group working report posted below. Main changes made were noted above, grammatical and wording changes were not noted above but will be found within the working word document.

Minutes by: Jason Greatrex

-- JasonGreatrex - 28 Jan 2008