Web Development Guidelines

Our Audience

We often refer to our audience as “students, faculty, and staff,” but within these groups, there are people with diverse experiences and needs. To effectively communicate with everyone, we use plain language and follow accessibility guidelines to ensure our content is accessible to those who:

• Come from different age groups, generations, and cultures
• Have a variety of cognitive, visual, or motor abilities
• Are new to academia or university life
• Are recent transfer students
• May be parents with young children
• Are new to the United States
• Speak English as a second language
• Use assistive technologies
• Are guests or visitors without borrowing privileges

Avoid making assumptions about your audience. Remember, no single person represents an entire group.

People engage with online content differently than print materials. These guidelines are informed by research on how people read on the web, regardless of whether they use assistive technologies. Following these practices will help make your content more accessible:

• Use clear and structured headings that are descriptive and follow a hierarchical format.
• Write meaningful and specific link text that clearly indicates the purpose of the link.
• Avoid long, complex words and sentences to make your content easier to understand.
• Use plain language that is simple, direct, and easy to read.

Creating content that is usable means your readers can quickly find and understand information to accomplish their tasks. Use these simple tips to improve usability:

• Put the most important information first
  • Use bullet points or numbered lists for complex details
  • Give clear step-by-step instructions
  • Make content easy to scan
• Highlight key points
• Use short paragraphs
• Follow standard web practice for certain types of content (navigation, hours, etc)