Scope

This site provides a Website Framework for establishing a common look and feel across multiple websites, while allowing frequent content updates by a broad spectrum of individuals. These standards are established through the use of user survey's, review of industry best practices, and development team input and consensus.

The subject of information architecture is about the practice of organizing, categorizing, and presenting information for user interaction. The mission of this framework is to allow the user to find what they want easily and quickly. Also, to allow the user to either obtain what they are looking for directly or search and discover items efficiently if they are not sure what they are looking for. It also provides the user with a positive aesthetic experience.

This document is intended to be a living document. It shall be revised over time. Revisions are necessary as new technologies become proven and accepted and as the "bottom line" standard for hardware and software changes.

Information architecture and design covers a broad array of aesthetics, functionality, organizational techniques, navigational techniques, and technical practices. This broad array is categorized on this site into sections as follows:

Browser & Coding Versions: Outlines the association standards used for development. Also defines the browsers and versions that the Web pages shall fully operate within.

Website Framework: Addresses the use of colors, text styles and layout styles in relation to providing consistency, an official branding, compatibility with industry standards, and aesthetic appeal for the user.

Tool Standards: Lists the specified tools for creating and maintaining the Website.

Navigation: Provides the structural blueprint for the site. Describes the overall site navigation architecture.

Functionality: Describes methods, techniques, and processes used to provide efficient user interaction.

Search Capability: Define the type of searches, the content searched, and tools used. Identifies the practices, methods and tools used in implementing search capability throughout the county Website.

Accessibility: Techniques to make interpreting and navigating web pages easier for the disabled.

Individual Privacy: Discusses implementation of industry best practices in maintaining the desired privacy of information submitted by or about individuals.

Legal Aspects: Discusses the use of copyrighted information.

Performance: Addresses techniques and standards for providing the user with acceptable download times.

Reuse of Code and Graphics: Describes the technical and procedural standards employed to reuse developed code and graphics wherever possible. This reduces redundant code and aids in presenting a consistent look and functionality across the county Website.

Coding Standards: Describes typical site file organization. Tips on industry standard coding practices. Links to XHTML, CFML and JavaScript coding standards.

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Intended Audience

This document is intended for Website developers in the Information Technology Department and Website developers/content contributors within all agencies/departments. This document is also used in agreements with vendors contracted for associated development work.

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Browsers & Coding Versions

New Website development and maintenance shall be in accordance with recognized standards. The Web pages shall function properly across a minimum set of brands and version of browsers. The criteria for choosing the standards is that they be final releases, widely recognized, are proven, and the capability for validation exists. Selected Web pages shall pass the accessibility standards.

No browser proprietary tags shall be used. No Java proprietary extensions shall be used. No ActiveX applet programming shall be used due to the inherent associated security risks.

The Brevard County Internet and Intranet sites appeal to different audiences. Also, the Intranet base of PCs/Macs is known, unlike the Internet. Therefore, some standards apply uniquely to each. The browsers/standards common to both the Internet and Intranet development are listed first. The browsers/standards applicable to each one uniquely are listed next.

Where there is any doubt about your Web page meeting a standard, it must work in the browsers and plug-ins listed below as a minimum.

Common to Internet and Intranet

• W3C XHTML Version 1.1.

• W3C CSS Version 1.0.

• ECMAScript, ECMA-262, 3rd Edition.

• SSL Version 2.0.

• Adobe Acrobat Reader v5.0+.

• New Web pages shall be designed to fully display within a 760 pixel width. Preferably, they shall also contain all the important information within a 420 pixel depth. This accomodates PC resolutions of 800x600 or greater. If the page is intended to be printable, ensure a printable version is provided.

Internet Specific

• MS Internet Explorer version 5.5 and later.
• Netscape Navigator version 7.01 and later.
• AOL version 7.0 and later.

• Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 1.0.
• Java Development Kit (JDK)1.1.

Intranet Specific

• MS Internet Explorer Version 5.5 and later.

• Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 1.1.4.
• Java Development Kit (JDK) 1.1.3.

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Website Framework

The Website Framework Look and Feel Format is defined by a set of "template" files maintained by the Information Technology Department.

• Cascading style sheets defined in the supplied templates set the default layouts, table settings, list settings, image settings and fonts to be used throughout the site.

• Make headings and labels clear and unambiguous. Avoid abbreviations and acronyms, unless they are typical terms your target audience expects.

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Tool Standards

Implementing and maintaining a common look and feel format across the entire site involves the use of proprietary tools. These tools are used in the creation and use of "templates" that define the common look and feel. They also are used for basic access control, configuration management and content creation/update capabilities.

The following tools are currently specified for use in implementing and maintaining the standard look and feel format and content management:

• Macromedia Dreamweaver MX v6.1 or later.
• Macromedia Contribute v3.1 or later.

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Navigation

The goal of the government Internet Website is to present a citizen centric view. The citizen shall be able to browse across multiple agency and department pages using a common overall navigation scheme. The navigation scheme consists basically of a left navigation column for breadth navigation and a breadcrumb trail for depth navigation. These navigation schemes are provided in the common look and feel templates described in the "Website Framework" section of this document.

Other navigation standards are described as follows:

• Avoid excessively long scrolling pages, flashy graphics that eat up bandwidth and don"t add functionality, and useless bells and whistles.

• Provide navigational links where needed and do not rely on the browser's controls such as "Back", "Forward" and "Home".
• Avoid underlining text that is not a link. Underlining shall be used only to identify navigational links.

Pop up Windows

• Open a new browser window when displaying a pdf document.

• Open a pop up window to display a table of data or other information specific to the page's content.

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Functionality

Web Forms Processing

Forms processing is a large part of what users perform when using interactive services. This section describes guidelines that shall be applied across all forms. The applications of these guidelines enhances consistency and allows the user to be familiar with the use of the overall site.

Required Entry Fields

On any given form, we usually designate certain fields that MUST be filled in or else the form will not be processed. These required fields shall be marked visually to aid the user in determining which fields to fill in as a minimum.

The following statement shall be displayed in red and placed at the top of the form:

Fields with an * are required for submittal.

The example below shows a required field using the red asterisk.

Frames

Frames shall not be used.

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Search Capability

Search Capability

The ability to perform searches is extremely valuable in locating desired information. The county Website shall employ the following guidelines to standardize and maximize search results.

Web Pages

If you want your pages to show up in the Brevard County BCC search results page, you must include a <title></title> tag in the <head> section of the XHTML page. This title shall be unique and standalone. Whatever text you place inside the <title></title> tag appears as a clickable link on the Search Results page. It also appears on the title bar at the top of the browser, and is the default title when the page is saved as a bookmark.

If you do not want your XHTML Web page to show up in the Brevard County BCC search results page, do not include an XHTML <title></title> tag on your page. Instead, place a marker such as the following where the title tag would ordinarily go:
<!-- Do not place a title tag on this page -->

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Accessibility

The Website structure and content shall be designed to accommodate individuals with disabilities. The particular disabilities accommodated are blindness, color blindness, deafness, mobility and dexterity. Selected site pages and content shall be made naturally accessible to these individuals, as appropriate. The goal is to provide accessibility to the primary Web pages, rather than producing a redundant set of "text only" pages.

Provide Alternative Text

Provide a text equivalent for every non-text element (e.g., via "alt", "longdesc", or in element content) . This includes images, graphical representations of text (including symbols), image map regions, animations (e.g., animated GIFs), applets and programmatic objects, ASCII art, frames, scripts, images used as list bullets, spacers, graphical buttons, sounds (played with or without user interaction), stand-alone audio files, audio tracks of video, and video. Make the text descriptive to tell what the animation, applet, or other object is doing and/or where it leads to.

Meaning must be Independent of Color

Ensure that all information conveyed with color is also available without color, for example from context or markup. For example, do not state "Click the red button" on the page.

Style Sheet Independance

Organize documents so they may be read without style sheets. For example, when an XHTML document is rendered without associated style sheets, it must still be possible to read the contents of the document.

Update Equivalents for Dynamic Content

Ensure that equivalents for dynamic content are updated when the dynamic content changes.

Avoid Blinking or Flickering

Avoid causing the screen to flicker or blink. The blinking can induce seizures in people with epilepsy.

Alternate Accessibility Page

If, after best efforts, you cannot create an accessible page, provide a link to an alternative page that uses W3C technologies, is accessible, has equivalent information (or functionality), and is updated as often as the inaccessible (original) page.

Images and Image Maps

Use Client-side Image Maps

Provide client-side image maps whenever possible, except where the regions cannot be defined with an available geometric shape.

Redundant Text Links for Server-side Image Maps

If a server side image map must be used, provide redundant text links for each active region.

Tables

• For data tables, identify row and column headers.

• For data tables that have two or more logical levels of row or column headers, use markup to associate data cells and header cells.

Applets and Scripts

Ensure that pages are usable when scripts, applets, or other programmatic objects are turned off or not supported. If this is not possible, provide equivalent information on an alternative accessible page.

Multimedia

• Until user agents can automatically read aloud the text equivalent of a visual track, provide an auditory description of the important information of the visual track of a multimedia presentation.

• For any time-based multimedia presentation (e.g., a movie or animation), synchronize equivalent alternatives (e.g., captions or auditory descriptions of the visual track) with the presentation.

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Individual Privacy

Individual Privacy Protection

A link to our Internet Privacy Policy page shall be placed in the footer of the XHTML Web page.

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Legal Aspects

Copyright and Intellectual Property

The use of graphics, sounds, video, audio and text in the county Website is subject to copyright laws. The following elements shall always be taken into consideration:

• Graphics, sounds, video, audio and text originally created by county personnel during their working hours are the property of the public, considered public record and can be used on the Website as desired without any infringement concern.
• Graphics, sounds, video, audio and text obtained from non-Brevard County published material maybe subject to copyright laws and shall obey the copyright regulations as defined by the material licensing/copyright. Be aware of the difference between personal use, educational use and commercial use. Also be aware of the difference between trial use and production use. Graphics, sounds, video, audio and text obtained from the Web are subject to the same regulations as non-Brevard County published material and may require a fee or the authorization of the creator in the least.
• Any items in question shall be routed through our legal department for approval.

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Performance

Each page shall download at 56K within 7 seconds.

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Reuse of Code and Graphics

XHTML Templates

The Website shall use XHTML templates to the maximum extent possible. Templates are images or code that can be considered standard and available for re-use throughout the Website. These templates are stored in a template directory under the purvue of the Information Technology Department. They are made available for individuals where appropriate.

County Seal

A page exists on the Intranet that contains a wide variety of sizes, colors, and formats of our official County Seal. It is suggested that all County Seals displayed on the Website be used from this page. Use of the County Seal is regulated in policy BCC-88 as follows:

"The manufacture, use, display, or other employment of any facsimile or reproduction of the County Seal, except by County Officers, or Employees in the performance of their official duties, without the express approval of the Board of County Commissioners is prohibited. Violation of this order is a second-degree misdemeanor."

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Coding Standards

• As a minimum, the XHTML Code shall be placed into each Web file. The parts written in bold italics are where you insert your specific data.
• Click on the following individual BCC Coding Standards for details on coding in XHTML, CFML, and JavaScript.

Project Directory/File Structure
It is recommended that each Website/project be created using a standard directory and file structure as shown in the figure below.

A separate directory shall be created for each Website/project.

The above figure shows the project subdirectory structure. Each subdirectory is described briefly below:

documents
Files saved in the Adobe pdf format. Any other non-web page documents.

css
Any cascading sytle sheet required to override the sitewide CSS.

images
All images.

js
JavaScript/ECMAScript code.

lib
Any code segments re-used across multiple site pages.

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Definitions

Browser
Computer program used to navigate through information on a network.

Digital Signature
Whatever two entities agree it is. The signature my be "an electronic sound, symbol, or process, attached to or logically associated with a contract or other record and executed or adopted by a person with the intent to sign the record".

E-commerce
The exchange of anything of value electronically over the Internet.

E-signature
It is whatever two entities agree it is. The signature may be an electronic sound, symbol, or process, attached to or logically associated with a contract or other record and executed or adopted by a person with the intent to sign the record.

Extranet
The view of an Internet or network site that is granted to members of an organizations supply chain or external partners.

Individual Privacy Information
Personal sensitive information of visitors to our Website. Information includes but is not limited to Social Security number, date of birth, mother's maiden name, credit card numbers, medical records, salaries, financial data, and intellectual property. Also, consider visitor's desire for anonymity.

Internet
The communications network that connects computer networks and organizational computer facilities throughout the world.

Intranet
The view of the Internet or network that is only available to designated departments and individuals behind a firewall. A browser is used to navigate through the information on the Intranet. Intranets provide facilities to do document search, retrieval, display, electronic mail, and group collaboration.

On-line Service
Any of the following:

• Interactive forms supported by database content
• Realtime electronic payment services

Portal
A logical array of Internet based content.

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Abbreviations & Acronyms

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Change Record

Date	Revision
09/07/2006	Revised Website Release Checklist. Revised Webmaster email address.
01/03/2006	Revised Copyright and Intellectual Property area.
04/08/2005	Revised Website Release Checklist (pdf) to consolidate breadcrumb Portal/BCC Home links.
02/25/2004	Changed "pdf" project directory name to "documents" in Coding Standards section.
09/29/2003	Added Acrobat Reader v5.0+ under Browsers & Coding Versions section.
07/01/2003	Added Website Release Checklist link.
06/27/2003	Revised Navigation section.
03/29/2003	Revised XHTML1.1 logo. Revised page to use framework and look and feel format. Revised ECMA link. This page validates (except for nobr) and compliant.
01/27/2003	Revised Directory Structure section. Re-titled "Aesthetics" section to "Look and Feel Format" and revised content. Revised title for "Browser & Coding Standards" section. Added "Tools Standards" section. Revised wording throughout entire document to reflect the incorporation of the look and feel format standard.
01/16/2003	Deleted download templates. Deleted Bobby Validator Link. Revised Accessibility Section. Revised document title. Deleted CAST Bobby Version 3.2, Level I as a standard. Deleted W3C HTML Version 4.01. as a standard. Revised XHTML Standard version. Revised baseline browser versions standard. Revised County Seal legal wording. Revised county URL.
08/22/2001	Added depth navigation bar. Revised the following sections: Navigation, Search Capability, Intended Audience, and Coding Standards. Deleted "Site Content" section.
08/21/2001	Revised "Browser/Standards Versions" section. Seperated out Internet/Intranet standards. Added ECMA to Acronyms.
02/20/2001	Initial Release. Earl Chassee.

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