Chapman’s main website acts as a first glimpse into the Chapman world for many and an official resource of Chapman information for everyone. Consequently, contributors must take extra care in the presentation, accuracy, and timeliness of information being put online. It is the responsibility of each web contributor to manage their content with accuracy and focus. Failure to do so will result in the review of their web pages and the potential removal of their content management system permissions.

6.1 Introduction

6.1.1 chapman.edu: The official Chapman website is a public-facing resource for all audiences interested in learning more about the Chapman experience. This includes prospective students, donors, community members, and current students, staff, and faculty. This site is managed by Strategic Marketing and Communications and updated by various web contributors from around campus.

6.1.2 User levels

6.1.2.1. Digital Marketing Team: Strategic Marketing and Communications has a dedicated team that assists in the building, review, and approval of digital marketing content. For the main website, their primary task is developing and improving webpages, but they also have the authority to revoke contributor permissions and change inappropriate or incorrect content.

6.1.2.2. Web Contributors: Consisting of Chapman faculty, staff, or students from each of the various departments and schools around campus, these users are the front line for updates on the website. They have content control for their sections with final approval from the Digital Marketing team.

6.2. Cascade Content Management System (CMS): This system is the backend platform that Web Contributors and the Digital Marketing team use to update and develop the main website. This content management system provides an easy process for contributors to make updates without having to know advanced web development languages.

6.2.1 Training:  

6.2.1.1. You must complete, in full, the online training session before we will assign permission to edit web pages in the Cascade CMS. This training is conducted via Canvas. For more information, please review the Getting Started: Cascade CMS guide.  

6.2.1.2. If you don’t consistently adhere to the web content and CMS usage policies, the Digital Marketing Team will revoke your editing privileges, and you will be required to complete another training session before they are restored.

6.2.2. Permissions:

6.2.2.1. You must be a Chapman staff member, student-worker, or faculty member to log in to the system using your Chapman username and password.

6.2.2.2. You must not share your login information and access to the CMS with anyone. Managers should not sign in for their student workers.

6.2.2.3. Your access will be limited to specific folders defined by the Digital Marketing team. If your position changes, the Digital Marketing team will adjust your level of permission accordingly.

6.2.2.4. You must only modify pages that have direct relevance to your position. If you have access to a shared folder (e.g. faculty directory) you must only edit pages that directly relate to your school, college, or department.

6.2.2.5. You will be removed from the system if you have not logged in to the CMS for at least six months, and you will be required to re-train to gain access again.

6.2.3. Workflow, Approvals, and Locked Pages:

6.2.3.1. Pages submitted for approval will be reviewed by a member of the Digital Marketing team and published or rejected within six business hours of submission.

6.2.3.2. The Digital Marketing team has the right to break the workflow if a locked page in a workflow has not been touched for three months or if the page content must be altered and the original editor does not respond to contact attempts. Edits to the page will be lost.

6.3 Website Specific Guidelines:

6.3.1 Header, Main Navigation, and Footer: Strategic Marketing and Communications (SMC) dictates the elements highlighted in the header, top navigation, and footer based on analytical and marketing research. The header, navigation, and footer are not open to modifications without approval from the Digital Marketing team.

6.3.2 Homepage:

6.3.2.1. Hero Area
The “hero area” is the full screen story area located at the top of the homepage. Members of the web or PR team must nominate stories to be in this area. The stories may originate from the blog network or be developed through Strategic Marketing and Communications. These stories need to push Chapman branding message and have captivating supporting visuals.

6.3.2.2 Top / Trending Stories / Community Stories: These stories or events are pulled directly from the blog network and are based on trending popularity on inside.chapman. Occasionally, Strategic Marketing and Communications will curate stories to appear in these sections if necessary and relevant.

6.3.3 Subpage Template Guidelines:

6.3.3.1. Template accent colors are defined by the Chapman branding guidelines and should not be changed manually.

6.3.3.2. If you choose a specific template, all live areas of that template must be filled with content. (For example, if you choose a three-column template, you must have third column callouts visible.)

6.3.3.3. You must use all insertion points in the content management system appropriately per their visual display. Don’t try to add your own html or place images in incompatible areas. Templates were built to make updates easier and control branding standards.

6.3.3.4. You must not alter the style sheet that defines the template.

6.3.3.5. You must not alter left hand navigation configuration sets without web coordinator approval.

6.3.4. School/College Landing Templates (Mosaic, Scrollbar, and Slideshow):

6.3.4.1. These templates are reserved for a school and college main landing page only, nowhere else.

6.3.4.2. No more than six main content image callouts are allowed.

6.3.5. Department Landing Template – template discontinued – new information to come.

6.3.6. 2- and 3-Column Modular Templates:

6.3.6.1. These templates are reserved for subpage and section landing page use only.

6.3.6.2. While all widgets are available to users, refrain from the over use of widget on the page

6.3.6.3. A Twitter feed must feed from an approved Chapman account.

6.3.6.4 Flickr and Picasa feeds must not contain inappropriate or distasteful content.

6.3.7. Personnel and Spotlight Templates: These templates have been discontinued in replace of the modular template.

6.3.8. Forms:

6.3.8.1. Forms must be developed and maintained by the university webmaster for the customer.

6.3.8.2. Forms may not ask a visitor for a Social Security Number.

6.3.8.3. Forms that ask for payment (credit card, PayPal, EFT, etc.) must go through eCommerce Services. Contact the Financial Services department to set that up.

6.3.8.4. Sender/receiver email addresses must be valid, permanent Chapman email addresses.

6.3.8.5. Forms must be ADA compliant, including label, ID and aria-required attributes on all fields.

6.3.8.6. Forms must provide the visitor with an email copy of the information submitted.

6.3.8.7. Form field validation must be cross-browser compatible.

6.3.8.8. Forms must submit to an approved form handler program. This will be done through IS&T development.

6.3.8.9. Customers may only use the information provided in the forms for the purpose of the form request, not for any other purpose, such as soliciting that person for another event. Information will not be sold to any third party.

6.3.9. Faculty Directories:

6.3.9.1. The Office of Faculty Affairs determines which employees qualify as current faculty. The listing may not be altered. Adjunct faculty in special roles cannot be changed to appear as if they are full-time faculty.

6.3.9.2. Only the Office of Faculty Affairs adds additional Titles to clarify rank (Clinical Assistant Professor, etc.), or extra affiliations (for example, Endowed Professorships) via Datatel. Special Titles (an additional field in the CMS) should only be used by the school’s web contributor to further delineate a faculty member’s responsibilities within the academic department.

6.3.9.3. Thumbnail photos must be submitted to the Digital Marketing team and may not be added directly in the CMS by the department.

6.3.9.4. Thumbnail photos for faculty may be used on pages outside the faculty directory but they should reference that same image file, not another uploaded copy outside of the faculty directory.

6.3.9.5. Creative and Scholarly Works are imported from entries made by faculty themselves in the Annual Faculty Report system. If entries are not to be made public on the website, it is the faculty member’s responsibility to designate them as hidden in that system.

6.3.9.6. Social media links on these pages must be Chapman related. A faculty member may link to a personal LinkedIn profile, but all other social media links must be connected to a Chapman-related account (i.e. research lab, club, etc.). Owners should not link to their personal Facebook, Twitter or Instagram accounts from these pages.

6.3.10. A-Z Listing: Links listed on the A-Z directory page are at the discretion of SMC. Some appropriate reasons to be listed include the following. The listing is:

• A school or department.
• A service or resource that is expected to be high volume or contain essential information for visitors to the website.

6.4. Page Content:

6.4.1 Metadata:

6.4.1.1. Page Titles: Titles should clearly describe the information the user will find on the page in three or four words (Ph.D. in Education).

6.4.1.2. Page Descriptions: Descriptions must be 160 characters or less. (The Ph.D. in Education program at Chapman’s College of Educational Studies features small, hands-on classes and four personalized emphases.)

6.4.1.3. Keywords: Although keywords only affect results on Chapman’s internal search, you must fill them out.

6.4.2. Primary Content:

6.4.2.1 Page Titles: Do not include “Chapman University” in your title. Cascade automatically adds this before the page is published.

6.4.2.2. Paragraphs: Do not underline text unless it is a link.

6.4.3. Callouts:

6.4.3.1. Right Hand Callouts:

6.4.3.1.1. Use right hand callouts to accentuate information that relates to the subject of your page or section.

6.4.3.1.2. Use no more than four callouts on a single page.

6.4.3.1.3. When creating a link, avoid using generic phrases like “click here.” Instead use descriptive language like “view course catalog.”

6.4.3.2. Left Hand Callouts:

6.4.3.3. Do not use images in this callout.

6.4.3.3.1. Text should not contain links. All links should appear in the designated Left Callout Link area.

6.4.3.4. Photo Callouts:

6.4.3.4.1. Title text should not contain more than three words.

6.4.3.4.2. If the callout allows for description text, the text should not exceed 128 characters.

6.4.3.4. Buttons: Buttons should always be calls to action such as ‘APPLY NOW’ or ‘REGISTER NOW’. The click through should always lead to a page where you want the user to take an action rather than a page that gives the user more information.

6.4.4. Section Navigation:

6.4.4.1. Do not create secondary navigation links within your page content. Use left side navigation properly and don’t repeat in primary content or right column unless they are callouts.

6.4.4.2. You must get approval from the Digital Marketing team to turn off sibling links in your left side navigation.

6.4.4.3. Siblings pages in the navigation can be hidden if:

6.4.4.3.1. The section is an independent department, institute, or center that is separate from a school or college.

6.4.4.3.2.  Hiding the page is part of a strategy approved by the Digital Marketing team.

6.4.5. Centralized Information

6.4.5.1. Faculty CVs should reside in the Faculty Directory only. Don’t duplicate them in other areas of the site. Link to same shared document.

6.4.5.2. Faculty bios should reside in the Faculty Directory only. Don’t duplicate them in other areas of the site. Link to the bio from school pages.

6.4.5.3. Faculty photos (thumbnails) should reside in Faculty Directory only. Reference copies there rather than uploading additional copies or a different photo.

6.4.5.4. If, by permission, you state facts or statistics, you are responsible for keeping them current and accurate per CIRO or other centralized data supplier.

6.4.6. Files and Documents

6.4.6.1. All files should be located in the folders respective “_files”  in the Cascade CMS site tree

6.4.6.2. All file names should follow these writing conventions:

6.4.6.2.1. use lowercase letters only

6.4.6.2.2. use dashes instead of spaces or underscores

6.4.6.2.3. make sure the file extension is included in the file name (i.e., file-name.pdf, .jpg, .png)

6.4.6.3. All documents should be converted to PDFs, unless a specific file type is needed.

6.4.6.4 All image files should use .jpg or .png, unless a specific file is needed.

6.4.7. Photos

6.4.7.1. Photos should not be graphically designed, which includes symbols, buttons, most vector images, logos, brochure designs, and images with additional text added etc. This is for both branding consistency and compliance with the Americans with Disability Act (ADA)

6.4.7.2. Photos should be properly formatted for the web. If your photo is stretched or skewed, please use our photo resizing web app.

6.4.7.3. Photos must be owned by Chapman through either a licensed purchase, usage rights verification or from in-house photography.