College of Arts and Sciences
Options for Website Owners
Overview
In early 2012, the UT Office of Communications and Marketing released: • New branding standards for the University of Tennessee, Knoxville
• Guidelines for using university branding in internal and external communications in print, electronic media, and video
• Marketing and communications tools and resources to support branding strategies— including a new website design template to be used by all Knoxville units.
This document focuses on the new website design templates and recommendations. The 2012 web template consists of a required structure and university identity elements, along with a set of recommendations regarding accent colors and content arrangement within the main content areas of university sites.
The 2012 web design is currently available for download in three formats: 1. Plain HTML/CSS templates
2. WordPress theme
3. Dreamweaver templates (.dwt)
Web Communications for Individual Departments and Schools
As a website owner, you have a number of choices about how you can move your current site content into the new university design. In each of these scenarios, pending review by the Office of Communications in the College of Arts and Sciences, you may publish your redesigned site once completed and approved.
If someone in your department maintains your current website—
Your web developer can download the new HTML/CSS templates from the
Communications website (http://communications.utk.edu/resources/web/) and begin moving your current content into the new design.
Your web developer is responsible for reviewing all of the information on the Communications website about the new branding guidelines and use of the web template
(http://communications.utk.edu/branding/ and http://communications.utk.edu/resources/). Any questions regarding implementation may be directed to [email protected].
Many departments will wish to consider using WordPress to deliver web content. The WordPress theme is currently available and will be a logical choice for many site owners.
If your web developer is someone outside the university— This is essentially the same situation as described above.
Your webmaster is responsible for reading and following web design guidelines as set forth by UT Communications and Arts and Sciences Communications. When external freelancers are
involved, the Arts and Sciences web communication manager is available for limited consultation regarding the templates and themes. If questions arise and you are unable to answer them, ask your web developer to contact [email protected].
Again, even if you are maintaining your website by means of an external freelancer, your department may wish to consider moving to a content management system (CMS) like WordPress. You may continue contracting with a freelance services provider outside the university in this situation, or you may decide to bring your website maintenance into your department. For more information about this option, see “HTML vs. WordPress” below. If Arts and Sciences Communications currently maintains your website—
Please submit your request to the college web communications manager at [email protected] to have your website redesigned and moved into an approved template. Arts and Sciences Communications prioritizes departmental site redesign requests with the goal of completing all such requests as quickly as possible.
Prior to restructuring and redesigning individual departmental websites, we will meet with departmental representatives regarding the existing website and how it is currently meeting your needs. Part of this discussion will involve a recommendation regarding the method of delivering site content (HTML/CSS or WordPress).
Whether your departmental site will remain in plain HTML or move into WordPress, you should begin thinking now about any restructuring or reorganization of content that will need to take place prior to visual redesign. Begin by doing an inventory of your existing content, and proceed to evaluate whether content needs to be updated, deleted, or supplemented. The next step will be to generate a simple text outline of your proposed site (this should be a hierarchical outline that will mirror the structure of your website).
Arts and Sciences Communications will provide feedback or make adjustments to this proposed outline based on best practices and conversations with departmental representatives. If you are happy with your current website, the web communications manager will simply move the
existing content into the new design and structure everything in the same way (same menu tabs, page organization, etc.) You may find this site map useful in organizing your website structure.
HTML vs. WordPress
When thinking about your impending redesign, the first question to answer is whether it suits your departmental communications needs to move your site to a more dynamic platform.
WordPress is the Content Management System (CMS) currently recommended by UT
Communications and is supported by Arts and Sciences Communications. The college website is in WordPress, and the college has its own contract with an external host (WPengine).
Some questions to ask when considering whether to adopt a CMS include:
• Does my department need direct and immediate access to our online content?
• Does my department need “dynamic” content, particularly for incorporating news and/or blog-type stories?
• Who maintains my departmental site, and what is their level of experience with web coding and design?
One of the primary advantages of WordPress is its ease of use. A person with little to no web programming or design experience can quickly learn to create and maintain a WordPress site using the UT WordPress theme. WordPress allows you to focus on and be in control of the most important aspect of your website—your content—while reducing the number of hours spent on development and look-and-feel. It also allows content contribution from any location at any time of day without requiring specialized software.
The WordPress theme is currently available for download at http://communications.utk.edu/resources/web/wptemplates.php A note on web hosting—
The College of Arts and Sciences offers an offsite hosting option for WordPress sites. The college holds the contract and covers the annual fee for departments, programs, and schools that have WordPress sites.
The Office of Information Technology (OIT) does not officially support WordPress. If you choose
to install WordPress on a server hosted by OIT, Arts and Sciences cannot offer technical assistance or guarantees regarding performance.
Some departments may run their own web server internally; if this is the case with your
department, check with your server administrator regarding the feasibility of installing, running, and maintaining WordPress locally.
A note on other CMSes—
While Arts and Sciences Communications only officially works with and supports WordPress, we do not present it as a “one-size-fits-all” solution for campus CMS needs. The Office of
Information Technology is developing a SharePoint theme based on the new website templates. OIT also supports Apache. Other departments around campus are working with Drupal themes, etc. It may be the case, in fact, that a CMS like SharePoint would better serve your department’s needs. When we meet with your departmental representatives to review your existing site and your needs, we will make recommendations based on your content and how best to deliver it, and some of those recommendations may take the form of referrals.
Custom Unit Headers
The unit header required by the 2012 web templates is the large rectangular area just below the topmost orange line of the template. It contains the college and your department or unit name. As you will read on the Communications website, the typeface used to identify your department should be Gotham Light/Gotham, and size and placement of this text is fixed. Your unit name should be left-aligned and the typeface should be 36-point Gotham Light. All departments, schools, programs, and centers within the College of Arts and Sciences should place "COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES" (all caps) beneath their unit name. This text should be 20-point Gotham Medium and left-aligned.
Both lines of type should be 36 pixels from the left edge of the header rectangle. There should be 27 pixels from the top of the caps in the upper line of type to the top edge of the header. Likewise, there should be 27 pixels from the baseline of the second line of type to the bottom edge of the header. The type sizes, line and letter spacing, and position within the header should match the header guide provided here (download the full-sized PDF as a reference).
Avoid using an outline on your header type. The image or color you choose for the header background should provide enough contrast with the type so that outlines are not needed. You may, however, use a soft "drop shadow" as shown here. Using Photoshop, the drop shadow on the header type is styled as follows:
• Shadow Angle: 135 degrees (use "Global Light") • Distance: 3 pixels
• Spread: none (zero) • Size: 3 pixels
• Opacity: 50%
You may choose to design your unit header to have a background image or color that varies from the examples provided in the web templates, as long as it does not interfere with the legibility of your department name.
UT Communications has purchased a limited number of licenses for Gotham that can be shared with designers around campus. If your department has a need for a Gotham license (in other words, if you will need the typeface for designing communications materials other than just the unit header of your website), please complete the form at
http://communications.utk.edu/resources/fonts/.
If you work with an outside freelancer, the freelancer will need to purchase his or her own license for Gotham. The cost of the typeface should be covered by the fee you pay your freelancer for designing and maintaining your website.
If you maintain your departmental site and the only need you have for the Gotham font is to design your unit header, Arts and Sciences Communications will work with you to produce your
unit header. If you would like Arts and Sciences Communications to design your unit header, please complete the request for services form at
http://communications.utk.edu/request/.
Summary of Services Offered by Arts and Sciences Communications
Arts and Sciences Communications is available to assist in a variety of ways with your electronic communications needs.
If you currently maintain your website internally in HTML/CSS, Arts and Sciences Communications is available to assist with the following:
• Review of unit header design • Design of unit header
• Consultation regarding information architecture • Review of website design and feedback
• Questions regarding template implementation
If you currently maintain your website internally using WordPress and maintain your own installation of WordPress on either an internal (departmental or OIT) or external server, Arts and Sciences Communications is available to assist with the following:
• Review of unit header design • Design of unit header
• Consultation regarding information architecture • Review of website design and feedback
• General questions regarding the UT WordPress theme • Periodic updates to the official UT WordPress theme
Arts and Sciences Communications is not available to assist with or troubleshoot your
WordPress installation on either a local or remotely hosted server, beyond issues with the theme itself.
If you maintain your website externally using a freelancer, Arts and Sciences
Communications is available to assist with general questions regarding implementation of the HTML/CSS templates or UT WordPress theme.
Arts and Sciences Communications is not available to assist external freelancers with original design, architecture, maintenance, or construction of websites.
If you rely on Arts and Sciences Communications to maintain your website, before we redesign your site, we would like to meet with your departmental representatives to review your current website and your needs going forward. We will then propose a plan and timeline for redesign and will make recommendations regarding whether to move your website into WordPress.
We ask that all departments, schools, or programs staff currently working with us for website design and maintenance begin the process of reviewing their sites and content at their earliest convenience.
Services at this level may involve: • Information architecture
• Consultation regarding information architecture • Original website design
• Site mockups
• Design review with client
• Design adjustments following feedback • Coding and development
• Site launch and troubleshooting • Hands-on WordPress training
• Recommendations and consultation regarding other electronic communications, such as e-newsletters, social media, etc.
• Continued site maintenance
To summarize, if a site is moved into WordPress, clients will still have access to Arts and Sciences Communications for consultations and support. However, if a department currently uses
WordPress and maintains its own installation of WordPress on a local or
OIT server (i.e., not the College of Arts and Sciences Word Press host contract), then Arts and Sciences Communications only offers limited help and will offer no technical support.
Arts and Sciences Communications has contracted with WPengine to host WordPress sites of departments, schools, and programs affiliated with the college. Any WordPress sites maintained by the college will be hosted on this college contract at no charge to the owners of the sites. If you have questions, please contact:
• Jeremy Hughes, web communications manager, College of Arts and Sciences Communications, by e-mail at [email protected] or phone at 974-0963.
• Lynn Champion, director of College of Arts and Sciences Communications, by e-mail at [email protected] or phone at 974-2992.
