Site organization and structure
The IU Kokomo home page is designed around the concept
of constituent-based
links. This means that each visitor to the site can
travel immediately to a section of the site developed specifically
for his or her user group (or area of interest). This is particularly
important because University sites have a broad variety of constituents,
and site visitors are looking for very different kinds of information
and resources.
The constituent-based links are established
to be persistent throughout the site, even as a
user navigates through the variety of pages under the iuk.edu domain.
The IU Kokomo templates are set up to accommodate these links.
The IU Kokomo design is also set up to accommodate
a variety of additional site links through the
primary navigation on the left side of each page, and through additional
developer-added navigation. If you have questions about setting
up your site navigation, please contact the Web Manager.
A note about the home page
| Organize strategically |
Domain names at IU Kokomo
A note about links on the IU Kokomo home page (www.iuk.edu)
The IU Kokomo
home page is developed for a constituent-based concept. Therefore,
links within the site will be accommodated on the constituent
"landing" pages, or on other appropriate pages,
at the discretion of the Office of
Communications and Marketing.
On a very limited basis, time-sensitive information
MAY be added to the IU Kokomo home page. This will be the exception, not
the rule. Instead, there are specific sections of the site
developed to accommodate, publicize, and provide information about
time-sensitive events, activities and university highlights. Overall,
the structure is to provide a unified and intuitive
information architecture—and a better user experience.
Organize strategically
There are a number of principles for good
site organization. In general, organize your site (both your content
structure [on your site] and your directory structure [on
the server]) with user expectations in mind.
Throw out your IU Kokomo divisional organizational chart; it is
not a good model for creating your site. Your site's structure should
require no institutional knowledge on the part of the user. A complete
stranger should be able to figure out how to navigate your site.
It is very helpful to map out your
site's proposed organizational structure graphically, to
establish links and hierarchy. This will also help you to determine
how to use the IU Kokomo templates for your individual site. If you would
like assistance in setting up your site's architecture, contact
the Web Manager and the Office of Communications and Marketing.
Follow these additional principles as well
(from the section on General Site Standards):
Begin with a sustainable, platform-independent
organizational structure for your site:
- Make sure that the default file in each directory and subdirectory
is titled "index.shtml", all lowercase.
- Use lowercase titles for all your file names.
- Make sure that file names have proper extensions,
such as .shtml, .htm, .jpg, .gif, .swf, etc.
- Do not use spaces or punctuation in file names,
other than the underscore "_" convention.
- Place all your images and graphics in a subdirectory called
"images." This subdirectory should
be located within your site's top-level directory.
- Use relative pathnames for links and images,
where possible.
- Use intuitive naming for your files and directories--keep
file names as short and descriptive as possible.
- Use the University's name in the top (title) bar of
the browser window for every page on your site--even those in
the lower tiers. You may abbreviate to IU Kokomo, but it is important
to identify all official IU Kokomo sites as such.
Domain names at IU Kokomo
The general principle is to stay away
from subdomains (such as history.iuk.edu) but use
subdirectories of the main iuk.edu domain (such as www.iuk.edu/history).
Subdirectories with ample space and FTP access on the IU server
will be provided for official sites by the Web Manager (or
designee). Further information about
naming
your Web site at IU Kokomo is here.
Also, IU Kokomo sites will remain in the .edu
domain. Non-.edu sites must be approved by the Web Manager and
the Office of Communications and Marketing. With rare exceptions requiring special permission,
.com sites will neither be hosted on IU Kokomo servers nor
linked to the IU Kokomo Web site.
