The UNT Dallas website and its content belong to the university. Departments are responsible for maintaining their information, while the Office of Marketing and Communications oversees website standards, design, and access.
These standards support a website that:
Helps visitors find information and complete tasks through clear, accessible, mobile-friendly content.
Organizes information around visitor needs and connects related resources across departments.
Presents a consistent university identity through coordinated design, navigation, and messaging.
Improves through regular content reviews, visitor feedback, and website analytics.
Departments are responsible for the accuracy, completeness, and timeliness of their content. Marketing and Communications provides guidance on web strategy, new pages, site features, and content organization.
The division of web roles across the university is as follows:
Content Expert: Supplies content and requests updates through a Contributor.
Editor: Publishes updates in the CMS after completing training. Might be a Site Owner.
Site Owner: Holds final responsibility for the area’s content and nominates Editors subject to Web Administrator approval. Ownership of page content does not automatically grant CMS access.
Web Administrator: Manages CMS access, site design, navigation, and web standards; serves as the final approver for all sites.
CMS access is limited to employees who have completed approved training and regularly maintain website content.
Keeping CMS access limited to a small group of regular editors promotes consistent content and helps users maintain familiarity with CMS tools and web standards.
The Web Administrator determines access based on:
Frequency of updates.
Number of pages maintained.
Existing Editors and backup coverage.
Additional access requires a demonstrated need and Web Administrator approval.
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 or our Web Accessibility Compliance page. 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.
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 link directly to documents on other websites (ie “hotlinking”); link to the webpage containing the document link.
Write for visitors who need to find information quickly and take action.
Put essential information and next steps first.
Use plain language, concise paragraphs, descriptive headings, and lists where helpful.
Explain unfamiliar terms and avoid internal jargon.
Adapt print and email content for the web before publishing.
Publish complete pages. Do not use “under construction” or empty “coming soon” sections.
Update or remove time-sensitive information promptly when it expires.
Link to the maintained source of information instead of duplicating it.
Review all content at least annually and whenever relevant information changes.
The following prompt can help adapt existing content for the web:
Rewrite the following content for the web using plain language, concise sentences, descriptive headings, and lists where helpful. Put the most important information first, remove repetition, and make next steps clear. Preserve essential facts, names, dates, and links. Do not invent information. Flag anything unclear or contradictory.
Content: [Paste text here]
Editors must review AI-assisted content for accuracy before publishing.
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.
The CMS has limited web form capabilities. As an alternative, UNT System 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.