The website, www.untdallas.edu, is the sole property of the University of North Texas at Dallas. While certain employees may have access to edit certain portions of the site, all its content remains the property of the university and not any individual.
The website provides a platform to showcase the university’s best qualities and project a positive image solely concerning university business. As we have several dozen personnel managing portions of the site, some essential guidelines will encourage clarity, accuracy and consistency in protecting the university’s online image.
In general, control of text content is delegated to those best positioned to ensuring its timeliness and accuracy. The Office of Marketing & Communications is available to help provide new pages, sites, and modules to meet specific needs, and to consult on web strategy, but the responsibility for maintaining accuracy and completeness of information rests on those within a department, unit, or division.
The division of web roles across the university is as follows:
The Office of Marketing and Communications will grant CMS access only to those who have completed approved training modules. Ownership of content does not imply permission to directly edit it. The number of editors will be held to an amount that ensures the most well-versed users are handling updates. Minimum users with maximum experience. Criteria will be based on factors such as:
Omni CMS tutorials are centrally hosted by Modern Campus. The full training library is available at all times and live orientations/refreshers are offered monthly. Custom tutorials will be supplied by the Web Administrator as required.
All new or revised web pages and other web resources -- published, hosted, or otherwise provided by the university -- must comply with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 .
Editors are responsible for implementing accessible content on their site. An overview of effective strategies can be found by visiting WebAIM.
Utilize the tools in the CMS to present your information, it provides a built-in accessibility check. If your page fails the accessibility check, your edits will not publish.
Do not upload PDFs unless it is impossible to present your information in web page format. Non-compliant or non-essential PDFs may be removed from a site at any time without notice.
Offices requiring official archiving will need to have a primary records retention plan that follows records schedules outlined in Policy 4.003 - Records and Information Management. The website is not a records management/retention tool. General web retention guidelines include:
Departments are encouraged to indicate on a webpage when more archives are available, and include the contact information needed for obtaining those. In order to maintain content that meets this policy, all content should be reviewed by stakeholders annually. Expired content, or archives which haven’t been updated in 2 years or more, should be removed from the site.
Carefully consider what 3rd party website UNTD is endorsing by linking to that entity. Non-governmental, private organizations or businesses, unless under contract with the UNT System, should not be endorsed by UNTD without careful consideration.
Do not create lists of hyperlinks or repeated links to the same website. If a site contains multiple pages of resources, then link to its homepage or appropriate landing page. Do not recreate that site’s menu by linking to several pages within it. If there are many different resources for the same topic, choose the most reputable. (ie. Don’t try to be Google)
Do not link directly to documents on other websites (ie “hotlinking”); link to the webpage containing the document link.
Editors should use Omni CMS link check to monitor for broken links, and update all broken links within a week. Broken links may be removed from a site at any time without notice.
Marketing & Communications manages the information architecture, menu navigation, and page titles used across the website.
Requests for updates to content managed by Marketing & Communications (e.g., navigation, templates, landing pages, homepage features, header and footer) may be submitted to the Web Administrator. The office is responsible for evaluating and prioritizing all change requests within five business days; and, as necessary, involving appropriate stakeholders or subject matter experts according to their role in the request. If the team cannot accommodate a request, it will share the reasoning behind the decision or offer alternative solutions.
Omni CMS has limited web form capabilities. As an alternative, UNT World offers a number of solutions:
The Office of Marketing & Communications has access to all areas of the untdallas.edu website. To ensure quality control, OMC will edit/alter content as needed for clarity, grammar, spelling, usage, and style as well as to conform to UNTD’s branding, naming conventions, and this web standards guide.
If content has been determined as outdated, inaccurate, or inconsistent with OMC guidelines, they will attempt to alert the appropriate content contributor or section head. If that step cannot be completed and the content is outdated, inaccurate, redundant or trivial, it may be removed by OMC.
Editors that violate these guidelines, including security and ADA compliance violations, will receive email notification from Marketing & Communications to address violations. If no attempt is made to address violations within five business days, the Site Owner will be contacted and will have five business days to address violations.
If three or more violations occur within a six- month period, the Site Owner will be contacted by the Assistant Vice President of Marketing & Communications, who will develop a corrective plan of action.
In the case of a security violation, the editor who shared a password will have access revoked and the person who used the password will not be granted access.
Marketing & Communications will make every effort to work with editors to address violations and assist in any necessary website updates.