University Web Services
Best Practices
Overview
This web site is intended as a resource for the Boise State community. It is a "best practices" document rather than a policy or a standard or a guideline because it is intended to represent the best we can achieve, a goal to aim for rather than a minimum to be met. If you are wanting to build a website that adheres to university standards, this site is your authoritative reference.
My intent is to help create a document that is independent of the tools used to create web pages. The document is emphatically not intended as a tutorial, but as a guideline to those who know how to create web content and are looking for the local rules and resources.
Background and Context
We have made multiple runs at creating standards for the campus. None have succeeded, nor even come close. As I went through the process last time, though, I decided that we were perhaps going at the problem from the wrong direction.
The fundamental goals are these:
- Improve the university's web presence in general and in detail
- Provide guidelines and tools by which departments and individuals can participate in that improvement
- Define in a general way what "improved" means
As I considered these goals, I concluded that another approach would be to create a sort of ideal, a model for others to follow. It would be incumbent on Web Services specifically and OIT generally to follow that model, and we could encourage others to do so as well. If the model really was better, people would see it and would voluntarily want to follow it.
The model had to be about much more than merely the look of pages; it had to be about how servers are run, about workflow, and so on. It had to be modular; there were too many aspects for it to be all-or-nothing; users had to be able to pursue the ideal by stages. All this, plus other considerations, led me to conclude that a Best Practices document would be a significant and necessary component.
Best Practices are not Policy
If any portion or element of this document should become policy, it will be moved to the University Policy Manual and will be linked appropriately.