Jump to main content.

OPA Review of Web Concepts and Drafts:
What We Look For

This page explains the Web review process and several aspects of Web design that Web Content Coordinators and the OPA Office of Web Communications (OWC) focus on during reviews. There's more to do than what is covered here, particularly for the standard look and feel, but here we focus on what people frequently misunderstand or don't get quite right. If you do these things right, you'll sail through product review.

Introduction

Web Content Coordinators in each AAship and Region and the OPA Office of Web Communications (OWC) review all concepts of new, redesigned or reorganized areas of the EPA Web site to ensure that materials meet all requirements and provide the best possible information and presentation. Prior to February 2008, OWC also reviewed drafts of new, redesigned or reorganized areas of epa.gov.

We find that materials we review meet most requirements, and most design choices are sound. However, there is a small set of problems that we find occur often. Below, we briefly describe each issue and what we expect. After each section, we provide references to policies and guidance.

Nothing presented here is original to this document; rather we have excerpted information relevant to these problems from the full set of guidance about building Web materials at EPA, especially the guidance found in Appendicies 3 and 4 of the Policy and Implementation Guide for Communications Product Development and Approval and the standard look and feel specification Other standards are available from the procedures, standards, and guidance section of the Web Guide.

We focus here on what we expect to find during our review, not the review process itself, which we've covered in the Product Development and Approval section of the Development Guide.

The best way to sail through Web product review is to read all of the requirements one time, and then refer to this guide as a checklist each time you develop something new. We'll still check materials against all requirements, but usually items not discussed here aren't a problem. Doing so will help you in two ways:

  1. You'll know up front what to do, avoiding late changes required during our review.
  2. Our review will be faster, since we won't have to comment on these problems.

Please contact OWC with any questions or concerns.

Top of page

Phases of Review

Web materials are reviewed at the concept stage and the draft stage. Both Web Content Coordinators and OWC perform concept review; this review marks the first time the Content Coordinators and OWC see an idea and have an opportunity to provide input. A concept does not involve a developed set of materials, but rather the idea for something. Draft review, conducted only by the Web Content Coordinators, can entail several rounds of comments and editing. Draft review involves preparing materials for final posting to EPA's Web site.

Top of page

Concept Review

At the concept stage, the Web Content Coordinators and the OPA Office of Web Communications (OWC) check that:

OWC presumes that developers and their managers have the best understanding of what is appropriate, but we will raise issues if we see any.

Concept review is also when OWC discusses how best to integrate national-level and regional-level information with the submitter and relevant offices.

References

Top of page

Draft Review

Web Content Coordinators in each AAship and Region review new areas of the EPA Web site against four broad types of criteria, all of which are established by formal Web standards:

Each criterion is discussed below. If a Web Content Coordinator determines that many simple issues exist (e.g., many spelling mistakes), he or she may reject the draft and ask you to use this document to assist you in further proofreading the draft before resubmitting it for review.

If you are developing a site for kids, students and/or educators, the Web Content Coordinator must also check with the Environmental Education Web Workgroup (EEWW) to make sure that the EEWW has reviewed the site.

Top of page

Standard Look and Feel

Web Content Coordiantors check that materials comply with the standard look and feel. They pay special attention to the items noted in Common Template Implementation Issues. Please refer to this list in the Web design area of the EPA Web site; specific items are not replicated here.

References

Top of page

Topical Organization and Design Principles

  1. Topical organization: organize your information along topical lines instead your org. chart.

  2. Split up information by geographic location. Follow the National and Regional Organization Standard.

  3. U.S. map: Use the standard U.S. map to link to regional bridge pages. Follow the Where You Live Page Standard and the Maps of the U.S. Standard.

  4. Create a page in each Region for information below the national level. Follow the Regional Bridge Page Standard.

References

Top of page

Writing Style and Information Conveyed

Top of page

Web Design Best Practices and Web Site Usability

Web site usability is a measure of how well the site provides information in a way that is:

In addition, goals for the practices described below include:

The following list presents items we frequently note in our comments on draft materials:

  1. Navigation: Readers must be able to answer the following from every page:
    Where am I?
    Where have I been?
    Where can I go?
    How do I get there?

    Use the following navigational tools to help answer these questions:
  2. URLs: Use aliases as much as possible. It is much easier to remember "www.epa.gov/seleniumcriteria" than "www.epa.gov/ost/criteria/selenium/". Proposed aliases should be as simple as possible and should not include any organizational acronyms. For example, use www.epa.gov//seleniumcriteria rather than www.epa.gov//ost/seleniumcriteria.

  3. Links: Follow these procedures and standards:
    • External Site Links (Procedure)
    • Link Text and Printing URLs (Standard)
    • Email Address Links (Standard)

  4. File formats:
  5. Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format: Follow these standards and best practices:
  6. Drop-down / slide-out menus and instant selection boxes: These items are banned under the Dropdown Menus and Instant Selection Boxes Standard.

  7. Accessibility / section 508 compliance: Complying with Section 508 is mandatory, and OPA supports whatever efforts you take to make your sites accessible. OPA does not currently have the resources to determine whether sites submitted under product review are fully accessible; however, OPA does look for some hallmarks of accessibility, such as the proper use of alt text for all graphics. Include the best possible alt text descriptions:
  8. Javascript
    • Do your best to make pages work the same way without Javascript enabled. At minimum, provide the same information and navigation options whether Javascript is enabled or not:
      • use <noscript> tags to warn users when certain functions are not working
      • provide a phone number or email address to get help
      • if you have permission to use image rollovers, ensure that content is equivalent and navigation still works without the rollover effect
    • Do not rely on Javascript for critical functions. For example, if form entries must be validated before they go into a database, carry out that function on the server side instead of relying on Javascript.
    • If you provide an online Javascript calculator, also provide a plain-text page explaining how users can complete a calculation manually with a formula or algorithm.
    • Follow the Javascript Standard.

  9. New browser windows: Avoid these under the News Browser Windows Standard.

  10. Pop-up windows: Use only when appropriate under the Pop-Ups Standard.

  11. "New" Icon: Use the EPA "NEW" icon to indicate that a piece of content is new. Follow the "NEW" Icon Standard.

References

Top of page

Graphics

See the standards related to graphics and multimedia (yosemite.epa.gov/oei/webguide.nsf/approved_cat?openView&RestrictToCategory=Graphics%20and%20Multimedia)

Making Web graphics smaller: www.epa.gov//productreview/guide/graphicsize.html

Top of page

Revision History

February 2008: updated to reflect OPA Office of Web Communications no longer reviewing draft Web content
March 2007: Significantly shortened to incorporate links to EPA Web Standards and remove references to Topics Lite
December 16, 2005: Added links and information from Web standards approved by the Web Council in September 2005, including creating a new section just for graphics
August 2, 2004: clarified various points without adding any new concepts
June 3, 2004: Added section on writing for the web and making pages scannable
April 27, 2004: added link to Making Web graphics smaller
March 4, 2004: released initial version
December 10, 2004: Added language about the role of the Environmental Education Web Workgroup in the development of sites for kids, students and educators; added language about developing aliases.

Top of page

 

Local Navigation

Jump to main content.