Who we build sites for
Types of sites the Messiah University web team is required to build
In an effort to ensure a consistent and quality visitor experience, effectively promote the University’s brand, assist in recruiting students and facilitate favorable search engine optimization, these university offices, departments and/or programs are required (as endorsed by the President’s Cabinet in 2011) to have their web sites built and designed by the University’s web team:
- The home page
- The Office of Admissions*
- Admissions projects to promote academic majors and departments*
- Academic majors and departments
- The Office of Development*
- New graduate programs*
- The Office of the President*
- Pages/sites directly linked from home page (hub pages)>
- Pages and sites for key institutional communications, initiatives and projects
Any of these departments, programs and offices whose website is not maintained by the Office of Marketing and Communications must assign a staff member or student to maintain and do routine updates of their site’s content. This person also must be trained in the University’s web-authoring tool, Jadu. Jadu classes are available on an ongoing basis; see Employee Training/Web in Falconlink for schedules.
* These offices, departments, and/or programs may be eligible to receive extended services and priority scheduling as deemed necessary. (There may be a charge for extended services depending on the type of services needed.)
Other types of site the Messiah University web team builds
- Sites for other college-related departments, offices and programs
Most other university entities may also request that the web team build their sites and are required to follow these guidelines:
- These departments, programs and offices must assign a staff member or student to maintain and do routine updates of their site’s content. This person also must be trained in the University’s web-authoring tool, Jadu. Jadu training is available on an ongoing basis; go to http://www.messiah.edu/training for a list of available sessions.
- The minimum lead time must be met by the client.
- The minimum lead time is 10 weeks from the time the navigational layout is completed by the client and site content is submitted to the web team.
- A standard set of services will be provided by the web team. These include:
- Site building from University template
- Hosting
- Basic/non-database e-commerce
- Group training
- Basic trouble-shooting
- Basic college template support
- One blog account
- Conference websites
- Conference web sites are evaluated by the web team on a case-by-case basis based upon the conference’s direct ties to the University and whether or not the minimum lead-time of 10 weeks (from the time the navigational layout /wire frame is completed by the client and site content is submitted) can been met.
- Limited services will be provided for qualifying conference websites. These services include:
- Basic conference template
- Basic e-commerce with no back-end programming
- Maximum of 20 pages
- Template support
- Training in the current web content editing software if necessary
Types of sites the Messiah University web team does not build
- Web pages and sites for Messiah University individuals
- Non-Messiah web pages and sites
- On-campus conferences with no direct ties to the University
- Messiah University student clubs – These pages/sites are overseen by the Office of Student Success and Engagement Office of Student Involvement and Leadership Programs
- Messiah University’s Falconlink
Minimum requirements for Messiah University web sites
Basic University template consisting of:
- Standard institutional global navigation
- Messiah logo in upper left corner of header
- Minimum set of basic institutional keywords
- University footer
- Standard 900-pixel width
- Preset fonts- including colors, sizes, and styles
- Standard width left and right navigation bars
Adherence to minimum web standards which includes:
- Adherence to: the policies, procedures and standards of the University’s Department of Information and Technology Services (ITS)
- All relevant local, state and federal laws
- The University’s community covenant
- W3C standards (World Wide Web Consortium - the main international standards organization for the World Wide Web, abbreviated WWW or W3)
- Compliance with accessibility guidelines
Hosting on messiah.edu
- Unless a compelling rationale has been presented to and a special exception has been granted by the web team and the director of print and web communications, all Messiah University websites must use the messiah.edu domain and be hosted on Messiah University's servers.
Minimum turn-around time for Messiah University sites
For sites the web team is required to build:
- Simple projects (6 pages or less; no-back-end programming)
- 5 weeks from the time the navigational layout (Information Architecture) is completed by the client and site content is submitted
- Complex projects (7 pages or more and/or back-end programming required)
- 10 weeks from the time the navigational layout (Information Architecture) is completed by the client and site content is submitted
- For all other sites the web team builds:
- 10 weeks from the time the navigational layout (Information Architecture) is completed by the client and site content is submitted
Project schedules begin when the web team receives a Information Architecture (IA) and the final, approved content for a site.
If you have not finished your planning or creating your content by the minimum time requirement noted above, and/or do not provide any additional required content and/or feedback according to the project schedule we prepare for you, your project will experience delays.