Best Practices

These are some basic guidelines to follow when working with webpages. 

General

• Formatting should be consistent throughout the entire K-State web presence.

Organization

• All pages must be accessible through the menu.
• All folders must have an index page.
• All folders must have a properties page.

Links

• Link text must not be 'click here'.
• Link text should not be a URL.
• Use the title attribute only for additional information.
• Links should not open in new windows.
• If a link does open in a new window, the user must be notified before clicking the link.

Headings

• Pages must have a single top-level heading.
• Headings should not end with a colon.
• Headings should not be all capital letters.
• Text and headings should be flush left.
• Headings should not be empty.

Text

• Text should not be underlined except as part of a link.
• Text and headings should be flush left.

Images

• Images must have a description.
• Resize your images. A good rule to follow is for the width of your image to be no larger than 300 pixels wide for horizontal images, and 250 pixels for vertical images. 
  
  • This is especially important for mobile compatibility
  • Resizing images before uploading them also helps them load faster for users, as large images load very slowly. 

Filenames

• File names should not contain special characters, capital letters, or spaces.
• Don't use underscores to separate words.
• Files should not be named untitled.html.
• Files should not be named Index.html.
• Files should not use -1, -2, etc. suffixes.
• Avoid dates in filenames.

Breadcrumbs

• Every folder should have a breadcrumb configured. If the name of your organization is too long, you should abbreviate. For example, Division of Communications and Marketing shoule be abbreviated to DCM.

Email addresses

• Use complete e-mail addresses as link text.