Policy for Web Page Design And Coding

POLICY WP007

Policy Date: December 2006


In line with current practice for University of Cambridge websites, all Faculty of Education web pages should:

  1. meet XHTML Transitional 1.0 standards
  2. begin with a 'DTD' statement which accurately indicates the level of HTML/XHTML conformance intended.
  3. be validated using the W3C MarkUp Validation Service
  4. use CSS2 stylesheets/coding to control style and layout wherever possible
  5. avoid use of HTML constructs which are deprecated by current W3C guidleines and University of Cambridge website and disabled access policies
  6. use images which are optimised and compressed for the fastest possible download
  7. provide appropriate alt text for every image included on the page
  8. use a neutral background and a text colour which gives a good contrast against it
  9. use standard link colours and the web-safe palette wherever possible
  10. be designed to facilitate resizing of the page, changing text size, etc.
  11. be designed to facilitate access by website visitors with disabilities
  12. be system and browser independent as far as possible and should be checked for compatibility on a wide range of browsers, screen resolutions, colour depths and operating systems. 
  13. be checked monthly across the site using the W3C link checker

Staff on Faculty Research projects responsible for creation or maintenance of web content should explore fully the University Computing Service web training programme and extensive web support resources, which are regularly updated at http://web-support.csx.cam.ac.uk/courses/

Review Date: n/a

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