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Web Style Guide feedback and update requests

This is a list of known or reported issues (errors, omissions, improvements) that will be considered for future updates to the Web Style Guide and generic template set. Contact uniweb@adm.monash.edu.au to have additional issues added.

It also outlines some of the usability issues that need to be monitored as the rollout of the new design progresses.

1. Style guide updates

1.1 Customisation instructions

  • If more than two search options, should they be in any specific order?
    Any order is fine as long as the sub-site search appears first and "All of Monash" appears last.
  • Does a customised search need to be offered?
    Only for sub-sites, not single page "sites" or top-level pages.

1.2 Add sections

  • Guidelines for electronic newsletters

1.3 Other changes/additions

  • Update page title guidelines and use info from Joan Gray/CMS metadata group
  • Create guidelines for standard form fields (eg text label and field names) that could be used in Monash booking forms.
  • Create guidelines on which browsers Monash University sites should work on.
  • Copyright text in the footer files now links to the copyright information page. Update visual components of the templates page to reflect the change.

2. Template updates

2.1 Error messages

  • Remove brackets around "Monash University" and place a comma before Monash University to meet page title guidelines.
  • Remove the redundant <!--   S K I P   L I N K   A N C H O R   --> comment from the response-template.html and associated .response files.
  • Update the email input field in 401.html change from 20 to 40 to match other error messages.
  • By default the error messages should point to weberrors@monash.edu.au not webmaster@monash.edu.au
  • What if a site is dual branded. What should the error messages look like (eg http://monash.edu/casestudies/assets/errors/)?
  • Remove *.response files?
    • Presently there are 4 separate *.response files and a response-template.html file to help you customise/QA check the response pages.  Why not remove all the *.response files and just create symbolic links (AKA alias) from the one response template?  This means that you only have to maintain the one file and all the other response files will be automatically updated. To create the symbolic link, SSH into the web server and in the errors folder type:
      ln -sf response-template.html 401.response
      Repeat for the 403, 404, and 500 response files.  For an example of this being implemented see: /web/www/campuses/caulfield/assets/errors/

2.2 Header

  • Remove inline style on global utilities bar (new browser version)
  • Change location of accesskey for search to the label (eg remove from submit button)
  • Relocate the accessibility information link that is currently stored in the footer to alongside the 'Skip to content' and 'Change text size' in the header.

2.3 Other page templates

2.4 Browser issues

  • Search "Go" button wraps to a second line in Linux Firefox 1.5

3. CSS issues

  • Add styles for fieldset - with a border (for question groups) and without a border (for groups of radio buttons/checkboxes)
  • Remove redundant styles
  • Move styles for top level pages into a separate imported stylesheet so page authors are clear about which styles can be used on other pages (see Stephanie Foott's documentation)
  • Add style for nested navigation lists so second bullet is plain rather than the > image.
  • Add styles for dual-branded error messages (eg http://monash.edu/casestudies/assets/errors/).
  • Add styles for definition lists.
  • Add specific styles for forms and handling errors etc (i.e more than: http://monash.edu/staff/web/tables-forms/forms.html -- actual form template, methods of display errors, form result/submission pages).

4. Usability issues

Due to the late decision regarding a new brand architecture, a number of design problems were dealt with hastily in the lead up to the rollout of the new templates. Up until this time, the design work was premised on a flat brand architecture (ie one logo, one site). This is a list of design decisions taken by the template/style guide working groups that require monitoring.

  • Link back to Monash home page as first link in breadcrumbs, and in footer.
  • Link to main staff directory while site map and site index are local versions (sub-brand sites only).
  • Use of scoped search with local search as default rather than sitewide search.

4.1 Navigation

  • Left navigation: underlining of links disappears on hover, perhaps suggesting this isn't actually a link. This is also inconsistent with the global nav, which does the reverse (ie. underlines links on hover). Create an alternate style for the hover (perhaps a background colour change) .
  • Left navigation, global navigation and utility navigation need a method of indicating which link/page a user is on.  For example, on the About Monash page, the "About Monash" link is still active. In this situation, make the link inactive, and change the presentation of the link to indicate this is the current page (maybe bolding?).
  • Following the rule of not allowing a link to the homepage on the homepage, the navigation bar "slides" across the screen as the link appears, then disappears when you return to the homepage. This could cause difficulties for users. Either the link should be there on the homepage (but not be clickable), or a blank space allowed there so that when the user leaves the homepage, the nav bar isn't sliding to the left.