Page Guidelines: Content & Navigation
To provide a greater consistency among University pages, yet retain individuality, content and navigation guidelines have been established for department, program, and student organization web pages. Content and navigation are closely related in that you must have navigation to get to your content, thus they will be discussed together.
In order to provide viewers with a common navigation element among University pages, a University navigation bar has been established, which looks much like this:
The University navigation bar is required to appear at the top of all main department/program pages and other prominent University pages. Note that the bar is not required on student organization web pages. To include the bar on your department or program page, copy the red HTML code and paste it right below your opening <BODY> tag.
<!-- begin university navigation bar - do not edit -->
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript" SRC="/includes/scripts/header/bar.js"></SCRIPT>
<!-- end university navigation bar -->
If you would like to use a color variation of the University navigation bar on your department or program page, contact the Webmaster for more information.
Following are content requirements and suggestions for department, program, and organization web pages.
Academic Department/Interdisciplinary and Special Program Content Requirements
- Required Pages
- Main Page - An introductory steering page for the department.
- Information - A page for basic department information as well as information to contact the department. If the main page contains contact information, this page is not required.
- Faculty - A listing of department or program faculty. Initial content is supplied from the University Catalog when you run the Web Page Template Wizard. You can modify, add, or remove information as necessary.
- Courses - A listing of current courses the department or program is offering. Dynamic, maintenance-free content is provided from the Registrar's Office Course Schedules and the University Catalog when you run the Web Page Template Wizard. Contact the Webmaster to obtain instructions if you do not use the template wizard. Programs that do not have courses are not required to have a course listing.
- Degree Requirements/Requirements - Requirements for the degree(s) that the department or program offers. Dynamic, maintenance-free content is provided from the University Catalog when you run the Web Page Template Wizard. Contact the Webmaster to obtain instructions if you do not use the template wizard.
- Suggested Pages (where applicable)
- Student Activities - Information about activities the department or program offers to students beyond the classroom.
- Research - Information about the research the department or program does.
- Others based on your department or program needs.
- Required Links
- School - A link to the school which the department is a part of.
- Admissions Office - A link to the Admissions Office web page. Optional if the University navigation bar is used at the top of the page.
- Registrar's Office - A link to the Registrar's Office web page.
- Susquehanna University - A link to the Susquehanna University main web page. Optional if the University navigation bar is used at the top of the page.
Administrative Department/Other Program Content Requirements
- Required Pages
- Main Page - An introductory steering page for the department or program.
- Suggested Pages (where applicable)
- Information - A page for basic program information as well as information to contact the program.
- Services - Information about the services your department or program offers.
- Others based on your department or program needs.
- Required Links
- Departments or programs that report to your department (where applicable)
- The department that your department or program reports to (where applicable)
- Susquehanna University - A link to the Susquehanna University main web page. Optional if the University navigation bar is used at the top of the page.
Student Organization Content Requirements
- Required Pages
- Main Page - An introductory steering page for the organization.
- Suggested Pages (where applicable)
- Information - A page for basic organization information as well as information to contact the organization.
- Activities - Information about what your organization does.
- Calendar - A calendar of events for your organization.
- Others based on your organization needs.
- Required Links
- An affiliated department (where applicable)
- Susquehanna University - A link to the Susquehanna University main web page.
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Navigation Cluster Placement
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Once you determine the page content of your department, program, or organization pages, you need to think about providing a means for the viewer to get around your web pages. Every good web page has a good scheme for navigation. The recommended way to provide navigation on University web page is to have a "cluster" of buttons or links in one location, such as at the left side of a page.
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Navigation Cluster Example
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Individual departments, programs, and organizations must also have a department-, program-, or organization-specific navigation cluster on all main department/program/organization web pages. The navigation cluster should include links to all the major pages of the department/program/organization Web site. In addition to the required pages (as described above), your department/program/organization will most likely have other pages you want to give prominent attention to that can also be placed in the navigation cluster. Most departments/programs/organizations will also be required to include links to other areas of the Web site (such as the University main page, the Admissions Office page, etc.) as described above. These links should appear at the bottom of the department/program/organization specific cluster and can also be slightly separated (see the "Navigation Cluster Example" to the left). The number of links in the navigation cluster should be carefully determined to not provide so many options that the viewer becomes confused. Once the navigation cluster is created, it should be exactly the same on all pages that use the cluster. The recommended location for the navigation cluster on University pages is on the left side of the page (see the "Navigation Cluster Placement" example to the right). Note that navigation does not have to be on the left side of main pages if it is incorporated into the overall design of the main page.
If you have any questions about web page content or navigation at Susquehanna, feel free to email the Webmaster or call 570-372-4348.
