The University of Arkansas’ Web presence is the first impression many people have of the state’s flagship university. Cruising through the many Web pages that are the virtual front doors of campus can be confusing if the reader encounters a jarring mishmash of fonts, colors and structural organization.

Meet the University of Arkansas Web Style Guide, a document that sets simple standards for how university websites should appear and function.

“The style guide’s purpose is to help ensure effective communication with our many diverse website visitors,” said John N. Diamond, associate vice chancellor for university relations. “Its intent is to maximize the clarity of our writing, graphic design and visual imagery to the hundreds of thousands of individuals from around the world who visit our web pages.

“This style guide is the product of many hours of research and discussions among campus-based web designers and developers. Based on that work, the style guide gives its users the best institutional practices for presenting web-based visual and written content.

“Just as our faculty and students use style guides to create and submit academic papers for publication or for academic credit, our web-page writers, designers and producers depend on common standards and practices for creating university-related content,” Diamond added. “This doesn’t affect the nature of what they wish to say; only its presentation.”

“The guide also ensures that visitors experience and understand our Web content as its writers and producers intend,” added Chris Nixon, director of digital design and development for the office of university relations. “This resource manual shows its users how to present visual and written content in a style and manner that is logical, appealing and provides an optimal user experience.”

The new guidelines allow for creative and unique sites while keeping viewers oriented as they surf official University of Arkansas websites. The style guide does not apply to non-university webpages created by individuals, such as the personal websites of students and faculty.

Websites built according to the style guide will be a pleasure for users to navigate, inviting them to return time after time, Nixon explained. A great site depends on sound information architecture and is built according to the best practices of usability, he said.

“I definitely think we needed it for the sake of a lot of websites, to give some consistency. It makes it easier and takes the pressure off many people who don’t have a background in design,” said Ali Williams, webmaster for J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences.

Some highlights from the new 25-page guide include:

• A list of required visual elements to ensure consistency among sites, such as a standard header and footer.
• Requirements for style, typography, photos and layout for new websites.
• An approved palette of colors, fonts and hyperlink styles.
• Mandatory steps to keep sites accessible to the disabled.
• A description of the "1140 design framework," an industry design standard that was chosen because of its intuitive style and cross-platform compatibility.
• Best practices that ensure users will have a great experience and get what they need from our web properties.

The guide is available for download at the Web Style Guide.

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UPDATE: The links on this page were updated Feb. 28, 2015, to reflect a new location for the Web Style Guide.