Web Standards

Benefits

Web standards contribute to establishing the Shoreline Community College "brand." Successfully establishing a brand identity has significant benefits:

  • builds a greater awareness of Shoreline
  • Shoreline becomes easier to recognize and recollect via consistency of appearance
  • differentiates Shoreline from competitors
  • enhances ability to successfully reach target audiences
  • improves life-relationships with target audiences
  • improves fund-raising potential

Setting Standards

Communications & Marketing, in conjunction with the Shoreline Community College Web Workgroup, sets standards and provides oversight for the College website. Web standards are the general policies and guidelines that govern and direct the web presence for Shoreline Community College, consisting of stylistic and technical parameters.

Paragraph Headers

Shoreline contracted with a company called iFactory in 2015 to make the website "responsive." Responsive websites transform themselves to fit any screen size. This provides a better user experience for the full range of visitors. 

One important element of the design is paragraph headers. Content editors should review the paragraph headers page to see how (and why) headers should be consistently employed.

Photos & Videos

The following criteria are used in approving the use of photos or video on a webpage:

  • they must enhance or facilitate communication of the topic addressed on that page
  • they must enhance or facilitate that page's communication goal
  • they should help address the needs of your target audience
  • they should help your target audience recognize the benefits your class or program will provide them
  • they must not distract or otherwise confuse a viewer as to the the topic addressed on that page
  • they must not distract or otherwise confuse a viewer as to what that page's communication goal is
  • all images must have ALT tags describing their content for ADA compliance
  • no copyright or permissions violations
  • must be of sufficient resolution and clarity
  • must be consistent with the overall site and the purpose of the page on which they appear

Forms

Any official Shoreline Community College PDF or form posted to the website must be recognizable as an official document or form of the College. To that end, please:

  • place the Shoreline Community College logo at the top of the page or title sheet
  • don't employ special colors other than black and white or Shoreline green
  • don't employ stylized fonts except to bold, italicize or underline

Online Forms

Formstack is a college-sanctioned tool that allows Shoreline to employ the latest technology while conforming to WA State requirements around data protection.

To request a new online form or a change to a form, please submit a form request. Either a form will be made for you or you may receive training and access to the form building tool to create and curate your own forms and data.

Snippets 

Most of the major visual elements, or building blocks, of our webpages are contained in "snippets." Our snippets glossary helps editors distinguish among them.