Implementation Guidelines

The Office of Communications and Marketing publishes the Auburn University Style Guide & Identification Standards Manual. Pages 32-33 of the guide address standards that apply to AU Web pages. The information below is meant to further clarify minimal standards that colleges, schools and departments should follow in their design and answer some of the questions the OCM has received since publishing the current Style Guide in 2008. The current Style Guide will be updated with the information below as the new website is implemented. A copy of the guide is available in the Office of Communications and Marketing or online here.

Reminder: The OCM can help campus units with the design and development of Web pages, as well as consult on compliance issues. Contact Multimedia Specialist Brock Parker (brockparker@auburn.edu) for assistance.

Templates

Colleges, schools and departments are required to use the Auburn University templates provided on this site. The templates should not be altered in any manner except for the examples below. However, the content areas may be individually tailored.

There are four templates from which to choose. Home pages for each college and school are required to use Layout 1, while other pages may be displayed in one of the other three templates.

Official Web colors
The official Web colors for Auburn University have changed with this new template. They are required for all headers/banners, logos and sidebars. Please click here for the hexadecimal and RGB values. A complementary color palette will also be available in the near future.

Header/Banner
Each template includes a header with the standard horizontal Auburn University tower logo on the left and college/department title on the right. The logo should not be changed for any reason, but the text may be altered. College and department titles must be aligned to the right inside the text area.

For departments that do not fall under a college or school, the name of the department will go into the text area. This also applies to college titles.

For departments that belong to a college or school, you will have the ability to add a subheading. The top line should be the name of the department. The smaller subheading should be the name of your college. You will find the following code in the template headers:

http://auburn.edu/template/layout1.html
 
has
 
<div class="titleArea">
<span class="mainHeading">Official AU Template Website</span>
<span class="subHeading">(optional subHeading)</span>
</div>

and
 
http://auburn.edu/template/layout2.html
 
has

<div class="titleArea">
<span class="mainHeading">Official AU Template Website</span>
<span class="subHeading"></span>
</div>

 

Fonts
The official font for the banner, as well as department titles in the content area is Verdana. The font color should be white, and be sized at 24 px. If the name is too long in the banner, the font sized may be reduced.

Logo usage
For college, school and departmental pages, the horizontal Auburn University tower logo embedded into the templates will be used.

Top links
University-wide links and search now appear in the gray bar above the header/banner.

The links in the orange navigation bar underneath the header/banner area may be customized for individual needs.

Sidebars
The titles, subtitles and links in the sidebars may be customized for individual needs.

Footer
Any college, school, or department is free to use the "College Street" footer image that is found at the bottom of this page. However, your area is encouraged to personalize the footer image.

Footer designs should be approved by the Office of Communications & Marketing.

General Content Guidelines

Auburn Logo: As with print, merchandise and all Auburn University external imaging materials, you may only use approved university logos, which cannot be altered, and which must be free and clear of other elements. Typically, other graphic elements should not appear within 10 pixels of the logo.

Text: For maximum readability, your body text should not be on a textured or colored background, and should ideally be black on a white background.

Navigation: Your web site should contain a consistent, clearly defined set of university-wide navigation links, which are provided in the template, within the top section of the page.  

Whitespace: The best site layouts have a balance of positive and negative space. To retain audience interest and to help viewers get to their information as quickly as possible, they should not look cluttered or text heavy. 

Scrolling: Just as the most important information in a news story should be near the top of a story, the most important information for your viewers should appear near the top of a Web page. It is not possible or practical to condense information so that viewers don't have to scroll, however, a logical priority order is desirable.  Today, users expect to scroll.

Texture & Graphics:  Highlights, drop-shadows, tasteful complementary colors, gradients and reflections can give your site a polished look, if used in a tasteful manner. However, overuse of these effects can distract from the top purpose of your site, which is to inform, and can be an obstacle for users in finding what they need.

Updates: Pages must include the date when last updated.

Last Updated: Dec. 17, 2010

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