UNIVERSITY OF BOLTON WEB PUBLISHER GUIDE JUNE 2016 / VERSION 1.0

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1 UNIVERSITY OF BOLTON WEB PUBLISHER GUIDE JUNE 2016 / VERSION 1.0

2 This guide is for staff who have responsibility for webpages on the university website. All Web Publishers must adhere to these guidelines as a requirement of having access to the university web server and content management system. If you have any queries regarding this document please contact; Dan Rowles Web Coordinator d.rowles@bolton.ac.uk Tel: Directorate for Institutional Advancement

3 Webpublishing Approval Process Editing content on the university website at requires permissions granted to staff throughout the university. These permissions enable you to login to Contensis, the university content management system. Within each academic/support area, members of staff are given training to use Contensis. In order to help ensure webpages are accurate, free from spelling errors, and contain quality content, it is important that there is an approval process. The Approval Process The digital approval process is considered to be an extra layer on top of the process that is followed departmentally for printed documentation. Written content that appears on the website would be created offline first, so in essence, exist as print documents initially. Therefore we are able to apply the approval process for printed documentation first, with digital approval on the content management system adding a further layer to the process, ensuring the content is properly formatted, error free, and has been approved by all staekholders. New Content When a new webpage is to be created * The content to be included on the webpage must first be created offline in Word or a similar format. * That document must follow the usual approval process for printed documents. * Once the content has been signed off it can then be inserted into the relevant webpage using the content management system, Contensis. * Before making live, the webpage must be submitted for approval, at this point an individual within the department/school with permissions to approve content will be notified that the webpage has been submitted for approval. They will then be able to either approve or revoke with comments. * If the webpage is revoked, the approver can add comments for editing the content, and the editor will be notified. It can then be re-submitted for approval. * If the webpage is approved it will immediately be sent to the publishing queue and will be live on the website shortly after. Existing Content When a Web Publisher has been tasked with making significant changes to an existing webpage, that page should then follow the below approval process before going live. * Once the webpage has been edited, the web publisher must save and preview the webpage checking for errors. * If anything is incorrect when previewed the editor must make the necessary changes and then repeat the preview process. * The webpage must then be submitted for approval. At this stage the editor must notify a colleague that has Contensis permissions, that the page is ready for approval. * The Approver must then review the webpage. If they are happy to proceed then they must approve the webpage. If not, they must revoke the page and inform the Editor of the

4 issues. * If the webpage was revoked then the process is repeated until the Approver has finally approved the webpage. Existing Content Corrections In the event that a Web Publisher finds grammatical or spelling that need correcting, it is deemed to be an insignificant change, therefore following the full approvals procedure is unneccessary. So in this instance the web publisher would simply correct the error and approve the webpage for immediate publishing. Web Publishing Best Practice Keep Content as Concise as Possible It s pretty well known that web users have very short attention spans and that we don t read articles thoroughly and in their entirety. A study (Ziming Liu, (2005) Reading behavior in the digital environment: Changes in reading behavior over the past ten years, Journal of Documentation, Vol. 61 Iss: 6, pp ) investigating the changes in our reading habits behaviors in the digital age concluded that we tend to skim webpages to find the information we want. We search for keywords, read in a non-linear fashion (i.e. we skip around a webpage instead of reading it from top to bottom) and have lowered attention spans. This idea that we re frugal when it comes to reading stuff on the web is reinforced by a usability study conducted by Jakob Nielsen. The study claims a that a 58% increase in usability can be achieved simply by cutting roughly half the words on the webpages being studied. Shorter articles enhance readability, so much so that many popular readability measurement formulas use the length of sentences and words as factors that influence ease of reading and comprehension. * Get to the point as quickly as possible. * Cut out unnecessary information. * Use easy-to-understand, shorter, common words and phrases. * Avoid long paragraphs and sentences. Use time-saving and attention-grabbing writing techniques, such using numbers instead of spelling them out. Use 1,000 as opposed to one thousand, which facilitates scanning and skimming. Test your writing style using readability formulas that gauge how easy it is to get through your prose. The Readability Test Tool allows you to plug in a URL, then gives you scores based on popular readability formulas such as the Flesch Kincaid Reading Ease. Use Headings to Break Up Long Articles A usability study described in an article by web content management expert Gerry McGovern led him to the conclusion that Internet readers inspect webpages in blocks and sections, or what he calls block reading. That is, when we look at a webpage, we tend to see it not as a whole, but rather as compartmentalised

5 chunks of information. We tend to read in blocks, going directly to items that seem to match what we re actively looking for. An eye-tracking study conducted by Nielsen revealed an eye-movement pattern that could further support this idea that web users do indeed read in chunks: We swipe our eyes from left to right, then continue on down the page in an F-shaped pattern, skipping a lot of text in between. We can do several things to accommodate these reading patterns. One strategy is to break up long articles into sections so that users can easily skim down the page. This applies to block reading (because blocks of text are denoted by headings) as well as the F-shaped pattern, because we re attracted to the headings as we move down the page. * Before writing a post, consider organizing your thoughts in logical chunks by first outlining what you ll write. * Use simple and concise headings. * Use keyword-rich headings to aid skimming, as well as those that use their browser s search feature (Ctrl + F on Windows, Command + F on Mac). Help Readers Scan Your Webpages Quickly As indicated in the usability study by Nielsen referenced earlier, as well as the other supporting evidence that web users tend to skim content, designing and structuring your webpages with skimming in mind can improve usability (as much as 47% according to the research mentioned above). * Make the first two words count, because users tend to read the first few words of headings, titles and links when they re scanning a webpage. * Front-load keywords in webpage titles, headings and links by using the passive voice as an effective writing device. * Use the inverted pyramid writing style to place important information at the top of your articles. Make Hyperlinked Text User-Friendly One big advantage of web-based content is our ability to use hyperlinks. The proper use of hyperlinks can aid readability and accessibility. Via the stylesheet we can visual show which links have already been visited, which helps web users navigate the website. Also it is important that the linking text is descriptive of where the link is going. So don t use click here! Use Visuals Strategically Photos, charts and graphs are worth a thousand words. Using visuals effectively can enhance readability when they replace or reinforce long blocks of textual content.

6 In fact, an eye-tracking study conducted by Nielsen suggests that users pay close attention to photos and other images that contain relevant information. Users, however, also ignore certain images, particularly stock photos merely included as decorative artwork. Another eye-tracking study reported a 34% increase in memory retention when unnecessary images were removed in conjunction with other content revisions. * Make sure images you use aid or support textual content. * Avoid stock photos and meaningless visuals. * Ensure the images you use are cleared for use on the university website, in regards to copyright and usage restrictions. Headers and Paragraphs Use header elements to convey document structure. The appropriate use of heading levels will improve the accessibility of your document. For example, use H2 to indicate a subsection of H1; do not use headers for font effects. You should nest the headings on a page in order Headings should be applied logically just as you would apply heading levels in an outline. Theoretically, if you extracted the headings from a web page that uses headings, you would have an outline of the page. You should nest the headings on a page in order. The heading structure may be used by some user agents to improve or add useful navigation features, or to abstract the document. The appropriate use of heading levels will improve the accessibility of your document.use. For example, use H2 to indicate a subsection of H1; do not use headers for font effects. <H1> for your page title <H1> <H2> for first major section heading <H2> <H3> for first subsection title <H3> <p > for the content of the sub section which may be paragraphs, lists, quotes, diagrams or whatever your document requires. </p> In the dropdown menu within Contensis they are listed as; * Header 1 * Header 2 * Header 3 * Normal (P) Do not use tables for layout Up until fairly recently it was the norm for Tables to be used to control layout. In reality tables were never meant to be used for that purpose, but only for displaying tabular data. Websites are now generally structured using Layers or DIV tags that are styled using a layout stylesheet. A situation where in the past you may well have used a table is when aligning images next to text. To do this now using the CMS; * Insert an image either above or below the text. * Go to the properties for your image. * Select FloatRight or FloatLeft from the style dropdown menu. This will achieve a better effect than dropping text and images into the cells or a table, this is because the text will naturally wrap around the image.

7 Design & Development In the event that you require a complete new website or other online project that may require extra support, you need to submit a request form on the Directorate for Institutional Advancement. This will then be considered by the Design and Development team, and scheduled in for production. Even if you aren t sure what you need, the design and development team will be able to advise on the best solution. To submit your request visit; (Ziming Liu, (2005) Reading behavior in the digital environment: Changes in reading behavior over the past ten years, Journal of Documentation, Vol. 61 Iss: 6, pp )

WRITING FOR THE WEB. UIUC Web Governance

WRITING FOR THE WEB. UIUC Web Governance WRITING FOR THE WEB UIUC Web Governance HOW USERS READ ON THE WEB UIUC Web Governance Scan text instead of reading word by word Often hurried, looking for something specific or wanting to complete a task