College of Forest Resources
Website Redesign Specifications (third draft, 12/17/07)
General Design Criteria
- appealing and relevant to prospective 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 - not Word
- 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)
- 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 Biology has 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
context-sensitive navigation menus - on left side of 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 area - between header and footer (with adequate blank space above and below), and
covering the remaining 80-85% of the page width
Footer (all pages)
[shaded in tan]
[Webmaster removed; link will be on Contact page]
Contact CFR Home UW Home UW Directories Site Map Calendar
[reference to use of graphics between items removed - would be too cluttered]
CFRWebSpecs3.doc
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College of Forest Resources
Website Redesign Specifications (third draft, 12/17/07)
Home Page
- header, as described above - narrower than current header to allow more content and not look crowded
- centered, but not overly narrow - maybe 2/3 of the “typical” 17-inch display screen
- four relatively large photos, 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; these 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 (see below*) are represented, and so that students, faculty, and alumni appear frequently; 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
- a new Welcome message on the left side of the page under the first two photos
- a section for News & Events on the right side of the page under the third and fourth photos
- no quick links
*undergraduate programs - Environmental Science and Resource Management, Paper Science and
Engineering
*graduate interest areas - Environmental Horticulture and Urban Forestry, Forest Ecology, Forest Soils,
Forest Systems and Bioenergy, Paper Science and Engineering, Restoration Ecology, Social Sciences,
Sustainable Resource Management, Wildlife Science
Proposed Site Map (and Content Notes)
CFR Home
About the College
Goals & Objectives (on the page?)
People (do we need this to be a separate page?)
Faculty (go to a page with a list of faculty members, which will have links to their personal
web pages)
Staff
Students
Alumni
Organizations
Message from the Dean (on the page, or Dean’s Office page?)
Dean’s Office
College Planning Committee
CFR Visiting Committee
News & Events
Academic Programs
Undergraduate [“Programs” removed]
Graduate [“Programs” removed]
Courses (go to a page that has a list of all CFR, ESRM, and PSE courses - course prefix,
number, and title; have two links: one to the course website, and the other to the
UW catalog description)
[“UW Time Schedule” removed]
Faculty
Advising [was “Student and Academic Services”]
Scholarships [was “Financial Aid and Scholarships”]
Diversity
More… [was “Additional Resources”]
CFRWebSpecs3.doc
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College of Forest Resources
Website Redesign Specifications (third draft, 12/17/07)
Research
Funded Research Projects
Center Research
UW Research
CFR “DSpace” Digital Repository
Cool Research Pages
CFR Fact Sheets
Outreach [was Educational Outreach]
Current Events (on page?)
College Outreach Providers
Denman Lecture Series
Outreach Steering Committee
Publications
Centers and Programs (go directly to new page; too many items for 2nd-level menu)
Center for International Trade in Forest Products
Center for Quantitative Science in Forestry, Fisheries, and Wildlife
Center for Sustainable Forestry at Pack Forest
Landscape Management
Northwest Environmental Forum
Olympic Natural Resources Center
Precision Forestry Cooperative
Rare Plant Care and Conservation
Restoration Ecology Network
Rural Technology Initiative
Stand Management Cooperative
Urban Ecology IGERT
UW Botanic Gardens
The Water Center
PNW Cooperative Ecosystems Study Unit (PNW-CESU)
USGS Cascadia Field Station
USFS Demonstration of Ecosystem Management Options Study (DEMO)
USFS Fire and Mountain Ecology Lab
USFS Forest Systems Engineering Cooperative
Wind River Canopy Crane Research Facility
Support CFR (go directly to new page; no 2nd-level menu items)
CFRWebSpecs3.doc
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College of Forest Resources
Website Redesign Specifications (third draft, 12/17/07)
CFR Tools (password required)
Committees (severely outdated; review the need for posting agendas, minutes, etc.)
Computing (needs major overhaul and updating of content)
Forms (review content)
Meeting Rooms (currently on same page with Space Policies and Safety
Meeting Rooms and Contacts
Anderson 22, Seminar Room
Anderson 207, Lockwood Forest Club Room
Bloedel 292, Seminar Room
Safety (currently on same page with Meeting Rooms and Space Policy)
Accident Report Procedures
Suspension of Operations Procedures
Organization Charts
CFR Organization Chart
UW Organization Chart
Policies & Procedures (needs major overhaul per meeting with Bev, Cecilia, and Sally,
9/17/07) - include Space Assignment/Use Policy (currently on Meeting Rooms, Space
Policies, and Safety page)
Internal CFR Event Calendar (should show availability of ALL meeting rooms)
Annual CFR Recognition Event
UW Visitor/Vendor Parking
CFRWebSpecs3.doc
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