Flinders Web Redevelopment Principles
Principle 1:
The Flinders Web should be managed and driven by the University with its primary focus
being to guide users (current and future students, staff, business and community, and
alumni) to the information and services they need; and to promote the University to the
local, national and international marketplace.
Principle 1.1:
Usability studies and other user information should be used to determine information
architecture, design and content solutions. As part of the redevelopment, this information
includes:
 Prospective student experience usability study
 Staff user needs analysis
 Search log analysis
Reference: Information Architecture Plan
Principle 1.2:
Content standards, procedures and training should centre around providing accessible,
user focussed content that is consistent, up-to-date and quality controlled. As part of the
migration process into the content management system, content should be reviewed and
evaluated.
Reference: Flinders University Web Goals
Principle 1.3:
In addition to user information, information architecture decisions, design, and content
should be checked back to ensure that they are consistent with the identified Flinders
University Web Goals and its broad aims to:
 Promote the University’s brand, values, capabilities, expertise and activities
 Attract and recruit high quality people and partners to the Flinders University
community
 Facilitate information and service provision that is responsive to user and
business needs
Reference: Flinders University Web Goals; Information Architecture Plan
Principle 1.4:
Content relating to the promotion of Flinders University’s research profile should be
redeveloped in accordance with the Office of Research’s communication plan.
Reference: Content Analysis Report; Flinders University Web Goals
Principle 1.5:
Content relating to the promotion of Flinders University’s excellence in teaching profile
should be developed and made accessible.
Reference: Content Analysis Report; Flinders University Web Goals
Principle 1.6:
Prospective student content should be redeveloped by implementing changes as
identified by the usability study of the prospective student experience, including:
 The redesign of section home pages
 Providing course fees on course information pages
 Improving contextual linking
 Improving scholarships listings
 Improving course information
Reference: Content Analysis Report; Flinders University Web Goals; Information
Architecture Plan; Prospective Student Experience, Flinders University Website
Principle 2:
Users (internal and external) should not have to understand or deal with the complexity
of the University structure when seeking information and services on the Flinders Web.
Principle 2.1:
Enterprise information architecture solutions should be developed to integrate content
from across departmental ‘silos’ in ways that makes sense to users. These solutions
include top-down navigation (the top level information structure, and contextual
navigation), supplementary navigational aids (including a site map and A – Z index) and
the configuring the search to meet user needs.
Reference: Information Architecture Plan
Principle 2.2:
There should be consistency in navigation, look and feel and page layout across the
subsites of the Flinders University Web.
Reference: Information Architecture Plan; Competitive Analysis Report; Accessibility and
the Flinders University Web
Principle 2.3:
The labels used within navigation structures and the labels of contextual links should be
user-centric, not jargony.
Reference: Competitive Analysis Report; Prospective Student Experience, Flinders
University; Accessibility and the Flinders University Web
Principle 2.4:
The emphasis on the revision of content (particularly for content relating to the
prosective student experience, teaching and research profiles and student services)
should be to make it accessible and user focussed by writing in clear, concise plain
English and layed out to facilitate scan-reading.
Reference: Flinders University Web Goals; Prospective Student Experience, Flinders
University
Principle 2.5:
A standard metadata scheme should be established and enforced by the content
management system to assist with the findability of content and content reuse.
Reference: Information Architecture Plan
Principle 2.6:
A range of search solutions should be implemented to improve the search facility of the
Flinders University Web. These include: the presentation and layout of the search page;
and the configuring of the search engine (presentation of results, query building
approaches, and the manual indexing of ‘best bets’). This should be informed by
ongoing and regular analysis of the search logs.
Reference: Information Architecture Plan; Search Log Analysis Report; Prospective
Student Experience, Flinders University
Principle 2.7:
The standard industry (ie University websites) approach to site organisation, where the
site is organised into the 2 main categories of ‘For’ and ‘About’ should continue to be
used by the Flinders University Web.
Reference: Competitive Analysis
Principle 2.8:
The homepage design should accommodate a number of links to provide a range of
navigations paths to users in a manner which doesn’t clutter the site and confuse users.
Reference: Competitive Analysis
Principle 3:
All University sites (including faculties and divisions, library, schools and departments,
centres and institutes established within the University, and commercial entities) should
be published within a standard content management system. Student organisation
websites will be offered the opportunity to participate.
Principle 3.1:
All Flinders University Web sites (published by areas that constitute the Flinders
University legal entity) should be published or eventually migrated into the content
management system. Exemption clauses need to be developed to allow for, amongst
other things, application based sites where it is inpractical to do so.
Reference: Flinders University Web Policy and Management Matrix
Principle 3.2:
The web policy should reflect that other relevant separate legal entity sites (ie student
organisations, staff pages, centres and institutes who are their own separate legal entitiy
and commercial organisations) can use the content management system. The objective
of this is to make this content accessible within the Flinders University Web system to
user groups in a manner which provides a seamless user experience and achieves cost
efficiencies. The legal and management implications for this should be addressed within
the policy.
Reference: Flinders University Web Policy and Management Matrix
Principle 4:
Content management processes should be developed to improve the efficiency of web
publishing, whilst also ensuring quality of content and minimising potential legal and
ethical risks.
Principle 4.1: Workflow processes administered by the content management system
should assist with quality assurance of content, accessibility and conformance with
policy and legal requirements. This requires a commitment to proper workflow processes
by content authors and approvers.
Reference: Accessibility and the Flinders University Web
Principle 5:
Faculties, Libraries and Divisions should manage their own content published on
Flinders Web and the relevant Central Administrative Divisions should manage the
Flinders University-wide content.
Principle 5.1:
The management of the Flinders University Web requires that a range of roles be
established, confirmed and/or recognised formally:
 Flinders University Web management within Central Administration – ongoing
strategy, evaluation, policy, development, management and administration of the
CMS, enterprise information architecture, accessibility and usability.
 Costs Centre Web Administration – ongoing management at a cost centre level
(Central Administration, Faculties, Library, Yunggorendi) to meet cost centre
requirements and ensure conformance with Flinders University Web.
 Web site editors – ongoing management at a sub-site level.
Reference: Accessibility and the Flinders University Web; Flinders University Web Policy
and Management Matrix
Principle 5.2:
Content standards for the Flinders University Web should be established to ensure
quality of content and content authors should be provided with support for their roles
(including training and communities of practice).
Reference: Accessibility and the Flinders University Web
Principle 6:
All University websites should have a consistent look and feel, or should be recognisable
as having a close family likeness to a strong, common brand and must display the
Flinders University crest in accordance with the Use of the University Name and
University Crest policy.
Principle 6.1:
Flinders University Web sub sites that are part of the legal entity of the Flinders
University will adopt a consistent look and feel for Flinders University Web. The standard
design will allow certain custom elements (colour and images) to change based on cost
centre and placement within the information structure. The details of this will be outlined
within a template strategy and informed by the Flinders University branding strategy.
Reference: Competitive Analysis; Flinders University Web Policy and Management
Matrix
Principle 6.2:
The web sites which are published by separate legal entities to the Flinders University
will have greater flexibility in the look and feel. They will only display the Flinders
University Crest where they have permission to do so.
Reference: Flinders University Web Policy and Management Matrix
Principle 7:
The Flinders University Web should adopt the same policy for allowing exemptions to the
website branding principle as it does for exceptions to the standard use of the University
crest.
Principle 8:
There should be common ‘core’ navigation structures and elements adopted by all
University sites.
Principle 8.1:
A standard global navigation bar should be included in all subsites representing the legal
entitiy of Flinders University. This navigation bar should include links back to ‘Home’
amongst others and a standard search box. Variations may occur for subsites not part of
the Flinders University legal entity.
Reference: Competitive Analysis; Prospective Student Experience, Flinders University;
Flinders University Web Policy and Management Matrix
Principle 8.2:
Breadcrumbs should be included as a standard navigation tool.
Reference: Competitive Analysis
Principle 8.3:
Consistent subsite navigation features including templates (page layout, contextual
navigation and look and feel) should be used to provide a standard user interface.
Reference: Competitive Analysis
Principle 8.4:
Variations of or non-standard global and contextual navigation features will apply for
subsites delivered by organisations that are part of the Flinders University community but
are not part of the Flinders University legal entity.
Reference: Flinders University Policy and Management Matrix
Principle 9:
Primary sources of information (eg course information) should only be stored in one
place, with appropriate management and authority, and be made accessible within other
relevant sections of the Flinders University Web (eg Faculty sites).
Principle 9.1:
Courses and programs content should be considered for content re-use
Reference: Content Analysis
Principle 9.2:
Scholarships content should be made more accessible to prospective and current
students either through content re-use or content syndication.
Reference: Content Analysis
Principle 10:
Strong leadership is essential for the success of the Flinders Web. A central body to
drive strategic directions relating to Flinders Web will be established.
Principle 11:
Standards need to be set centrally (with Faculty, Library and Division input) that all
faculties, the library and divisions need to comply with as part of the Flinders University
Web.
Principle 11.1:
Policies and accompanying guidelines need to address the use of templates (look and
feel, information architecture, layout); web publishing and content standards; and
accessibility.
Principle 12:
The W3C guidelines for accessibility by people with disabilities should be followed.
Principle 12.1:
A minimum level A compliance of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 should
be achieved as part of the web redevelopment.
Reference: Accessibility and the Flinders University Web
Principle 12.2:
The content management system should support and/or be configured to support the
production of accessible content, within the limit of resources available. The aim is to
achieve the minimum level of compliance with the W3C’s Authoring Tool Accessibility
Guidelines.
Reference: Accessibility and the Flinders University Web
Principle 12.3:
That the standard web templates are developed to meet accessibility requirements by
using cascading style sheets and including accessibility features (eg skip navigation, text
resize).
Reference: Accessibility and the Flinders University Web; Competitive Analysis
Principle 12.4:
A web accessibility policy and accompanying guidelines should be established.
Reference: Accessibility and the Flinders University Web
Principle 12.5:
Content authors should be provided with content writing and accessibility training to
enable them to deliver ‘accessible’ content.
Reference: Accessibility and the Flinders University Web
Principle 12.6:
A community of practice should be established for content authors to share accessibility
and web content authoring tips and knowledge.
Reference: Accessibility and the Flinders University Web
Principle 13:
A commitment to ongoing evaluation and accessible statistical data reporting on a
regular basis should be made.