Danville Area Community College

Web Design

As more departments at DACC develop web pages, as more individuals become involved in this development, and as more information is provided on these pages, it is increasingly important that there should be some web design standards. The intention here is to produce a common "look and feel" to the various parts of the DACC web site, while still allowing for individual creativity. To that end, there are just a few requirements for all main departmental web pages. These do not apply to sub-pages of an individual department -- for example, the main Financial Aid page would have the all of elements described below, but a sub-page that lists the Financial Aid staff is not required to have them.

The standard DACC layout. As seen on the page you are looking at right now, it includes the DACC logo and title, along with several navigation buttons (including one for the DACC home page). A few simple instructions need to be followed to include this layout in your page.
White background. For the most part, white is white, but different computers and different browsers may display other colors differently, causing pages to look different than the author intended.
Green or black or other dark text. For consistency, text should be black or dark green. These will be easily read against the standard white background. For the standard DACC green color, use the color code #006043.
Light use of images and other multimedia. Pictures and other graphics are great things to include in web pages; among other things, they make pages more interesting and engaging. But images should be kept fairly small in terms of file size, to allow the page to load as quickly as possible. If large images are necessary, provide a link such as a thumbnail image instead of including the full-size image directly on the opening page; this way, the choice of whether or not to view the large image is left to the user.
Designer information. In some manner, the designer of the page should be listed, along with an E-mail address. This is often done in a smaller font at the bottom of the page.

Aside from these requirements, the content is up to the author; and below the main departmental page level, authors may do pretty much whatever they want. However, sub-pages should be designed with these elements in mind:

There must be an obvious, easy-to-find link back to the parent page. Optionally, there can be a link back to the main DACC page at http://www.dacc.edu, but this is not required. Of course, users could simply press the "Back" button to get to the previous page; but keep in mind that users may reach one of your sub-pages via a web search without ever having been to the main page. Providing a link back to that main page will ensure that even these users will be able to find your main page easily. It's also possible to find the main page by removing portions of the web address; but a link is much easier for the user.
The design must be user-friendly. Among other things, this means that it should be easy to read, easy to navigate, and should present information in a clear, easy-to-understand manner.
It should be easy to determine that any particular page is part of the DACC web site. This is a very broad, subjective statement, but the intent is to avoid confusing users; they should not feel that they have left the DACC site.
Use relative links when possible. This makes relocation of a group of web pages much easier. Relative links refer simply to a filename based on the current directory, whereas absolute links refer to the complete URL of a page. Absolute links should be avoided except when making links to pages that are outside DACC's web site.

Examples of absolute links:
```
<a href="http://www.netscape.com">Netscape</a>

<a href="http://www.dacc.edu/depts/admin/athletics">Athletics</a>
```
Examples of relative links:
```
<a href="instructions.html">Instructions</a>

<a href="/depts/admin/athletics">Athletics</a>
```

Here are some examples of commonly-used links to various parts of the DACC website.

To add a link to the current college catalog:
```
<a href="/catalog/">DACC Catalog</a>
```

To add a link to the course schedules:

<a href="/schedules/">Course schedules</a>

To add a link to an area of study in the catalog:
```
<a href="/catalog/courses/?division=SCI&area=BIOL">Biology</a>
```
(Valid division codes are: AED, BUS, DED, LAR, TEC, SCI.)

To add a link to a particular course syllabus:

<a href="/catalog/courses/?course=BIOL101">Biology 101</a>

The cooperation of our growing family of web designers is appreciated; as long as these guidelines are followed, feel free exercise your creative energies to produce interesting, engaging web pages. Any questions about DACC's web site or other network services should be directed to Jeff Williams (jeff@dacc.edu).