College of Forest Resources
Website Redesign Specifications (2/13/08)
General Design Criteria
• Appealing and relevant to prospective and current students, but not too flashy for older alumni and
donors
• Follow current industry standards; clean code; maintainable by CFR staff over long term
• Follow W3C and UW accessibility guidelines; if feasible and within budget, we should consider testing
in the College of Engineering’s testing lab
• Photos should be included on most pages to enhance text content; all should have meaningful captions
and some can be links to other areas of site, as appropriate
• Basic page layout should be similar to that of the UW Biology Dept. site
(http://www.biology.washington.edu/) - clean and uncluttered
• All documents should be in PDF format
• Dropdown menus, if used at all, should never cover up any other content
• The color scheme should be light forest green and tan (i.e., “earthy”), with some purple thrown in
(since it is a Husky color as well as the color of many flowers)
• Needs to be tested in latest versions of Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari
Documentation
UW Publications Services designer and developer shall provide detailed technical specifications to CFR staff
to facilitate long-term maintenance and upgrades, to include but not be limited to, the following:
• Typeface used (must be available on Windows PCs and Macs)
• Formats and sizes of photos used on home page and other pages (in pixel width and height)
• Page sizing (resolution and minimum size monitor the site can support)
• Browsers supported
• Design tools required for maintenance, if any
• Other technical specifications as appropriate
Header (all pages)
top section: “University of Washington” and “College of Forest Resources” as hot spots that link to the
UW and CFR home pages, respectively, superimposed on the left side of the banner, which will be a forest
green background with the shadow of a fern frond
bottom section: Directly below the banner will be the 2-level main navigation menu, modeled after the
one used by the UW Biology Dept. - see site map below for items to be included on each level; URLs for all
items in these two levels must be fully qualified, so they can be picked up by search engines
search box and button: Directly below the menu and right-justified (The one on the Biology site is too
far down and thus wastes content space, and is also non-intuitive, since you have to press Enter to make
it run the search. Their results page is also very unimpressive; we would prefer to stay with Google,
unless better alternatives exist.)
Content (all pages except home page)
Two columns, divided by a thin vertical line:
context-sensitive navigation menus: On left side of the page, about 15-20% of the total page width,
or whatever looks good; will appear on all pages on and below each of the major (2nd-level) areas in the
site map below; generally these will consist of links to the pages listed in the 3rd level of the site map
main content column: Between header and footer (with adequate blank space above and below), and
covering the remaining 80-85% of the page width
Footer (all pages)
One line across the bottom of the page, centered, smaller typeface than menu items, and shaded in tan,
containing the following links:
CONTACT US
CFRWebSpecs5.doc
CFR HOME
UW HOME
UW DIRECTORIES
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SITE MAP
CALENDAR
College of Forest Resources
Website Redesign Specifications (2/13/08)
Home Page
• Should fill 100% of the browser window horizontally
• Header, as described above - vertically narrower than current header to allow more content and not
look crowded
• Four photos (vertically slightly taller than the header, horizontally equal widths and filling the entire
width of the page), to change sequentially every 10 seconds, with each photo representing the
following general areas (left to right): CFR history, urban horticulture/restoration,
forestry/paper science and engineering, and native landscapes/wildlife; the photos will reside
in four directories on the server, and will be chosen by CFR staff so that all of the College’s
undergraduate programs and graduate areas of interests are represented, and so that students,
faculty, and alumni appear frequently (except, of course, in the first and last categories); the first
photo that appears in each position will be selected randomly each time the home page is accessed or
refreshed, so that visitors don’t always see the same 4 photos together; CFR staff will develop photo
standards and submission instructions
• Three-column format under photos:
left: Welcome message
center: News & Events
right: “Spotlight” of noteworthy faculty, student, staff accomplishment, or CFR recognition or special
event
Site Map
[navigation notes in square brackets]
(content notes in parentheses)
NOTE: Only some new third-level pages have been included here. All others should come directly from
the current site.
CFR Home
About the College [go directly to new page, which will have the content of the current College
Profile page]
Dean’s Message (needs revision)
Dean’s Office
Diversity
Alumni
Visiting Committee
Facilities & Maps
News & Events
Employment Opportunities
People
Faculty (this page will have a list of faculty members, titles, and interest areas; names will
be links that expand their information, which will be the same as the current
content of faculty.asp)
Staff
Graduate Students
Organizations
Academic Programs
Undergraduate Students
Graduate Applicants (include a link to the faculty page)
Graduate Students
Advising
Scholarships
Links
CFRWebSpecs5.doc
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College of Forest Resources
Website Redesign Specifications (2/13/08)
Courses
Autumn
Winter
Spring
Summer
Research
Research Labs
Funded Research Projects
Center Research
Cool Research Pages
CFR Fact Sheets
UW Office of Research
Outreach
Overview (general & steering committee info; list of providers)
Current Events
Denman Lecture Series
Publications
Centers & Programs [go directly to new page, which will list all Centers on the left and Programs on
the right]
Support CFR [go directly to page]
CFR Tools
Committees
Computing (needs major overhaul and updating of content)
Forms (need to review content)
Meeting Rooms (currently on same page with Space Policies and Safety
Safety (currently on same page with Meeting Rooms and Space Policy)
Organization Charts
Policies & Procedures (needs major overhaul per meeting with Bev, Cecilia, and Sally,
9/17/07) - include content of current About page (mission, vision,
goals & objectives, etc.) and Space Assignment/Use Policy (currently
on Meeting Rooms, Space Policies, and Safety page)
Internal CFR Event Calendar (should show availability of CFR reserved meeting rooms)
Annual CFR Recognition Event
UW Visitor/Vendor Parking
CFRWebSpecs5.doc
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