Links Matter
I was reading an article this morning by usability expert Jakob Nielsen, which discusses the importance of being careful and intentional about what your links say. You can read the full post (First 2 Words: A Signal for the Scanning Eye), but I’ll also sum up here: If there is one principle that’s the most…
EDU Redesign – What Does It Mean For Me?
If you are a Web Manager user but your website is not liberty.edu, there should not be any change to how you edit your pages. There will not be any change to the design of your website. If you haven’t checked your inbox yet, you’ve missed the email announcing there’s a redesign for the liberty.edu…
Old Document Deletion
In my last post, I asked everyone to delete old documents out of their File Managers so that we prevent misinforming site visitors and generally looking like we don’t keep up with our content. My coworkers and I will now begin deleting old files out of File Managers. If you’d like to prevent our…
Search Optimization: Delete Old Documents!
Have you ever done a search on liberty.edu and wondered why what you’re looking for doesn’t show up? While there are multiple reasons this may happen, we’re going to focus first on one variable that is within our control and easy to fix: out-of-date content. Did you know that any document (Word, Excel, PDF, PowerPoint,…
Images and Page Design
At times, flipping through the pages of a magazine and browsing through the pages of a website can seem pretty similar. Both have text punctuated by attention-grabbing images. But the differences between print and web dictate that we must approach the two differently. For example, people read print and web pieces differently, and the wise…
Writing Effectively For The Web
Writing should be suited not only to the audience for which it is intended but also to the medium in which it will be presented. For web writing, that means anticipating the content the user wants and making it easy to access. Users scan the text on a page in order to find the content that they’re…
Positioning Images Effectively
Using images on your web pages can add visual interest and information. Placing them effectively will add to the professionalism and usability of the page. In the first image below, the selection and placement is effective for several reasons: Its size is appropriate for the text it is accompanying – it is not taller than the space taken up…
Important Pages and Page Deletion
The more important the information on one of your department’s webpages, the more likely that another department’s webpage may be linking to it. Therefore, it is necessary that you do not delete pages with perennial or very important information on them. Rather, update them with new information as needed. For example, the Financial Aid department…
Linking To Frequently-Referenced Documents
As you develop your webpages, you may find that it would be helpful to your users to provide a document that is generated by a different department. This happens frequently with documents such as Degree Completion Sheets and the Academic Calendar. However, if each department saves their own copy of the document generated by a different department,…
Fonts & Font Woes
The problem: Use of different fonts on the website; different fonts causing unpredictable results. The solution: Always use the “paste as plain text” button to paste text. The explanation: Our website uses one font. It’s readable and it’s consistent, which helps users immensely. We never want our text to be a distraction – we want…