Web Content Management System Policies

Each college, department and office is required to designate a web maintainer, who will be trained in the web content management system. This person will be responsible for updating content on the website using a workflow within the system. The workflow is simply a series of approval steps within the software.

Faculty or staff members who are designated department maintainers can have students assist them. It is recommended that the student's supervisor is also trained. Training is provided on a regular basis. To set up training, please file a web ticket and select "Tridion Training" from the dropdown menu.

General Policies

  • Open sans is the font used throughout the university pages.
  • Text options can be accessed using the style button in the toolbar. Styles not within the set parameters will be grayed out. 
  • Links to documents should be designated as such and should open new windows (e.g., doc, docx, pdf). 
  • Links to websites outside the university should open new windows. Internal links (on uml.edu) do not need to open new windows.
  • Reducing redundancy across the university’s web pages is a goal of content management system, enabling information to be updated in one place. Our team will determine where the information should “live” and encourage others to link to that page. For example, tuition and fee information is on The Solution Center page; Admissions and other departments can then link to that page.
  • Photos must have alternative text, also known as alt tags, descriptive information making images accessible to all users. The field for alt text is in the metadata of the photo.

The Web Strategy team must approve all website changes before they are published. This process, a part of web content management system, ensures consistency across all web pages, reduced the amount of typos and ensures web pages are correctly formatted and linked.

Changes generally are processed within 24 to 48 hours (often much sooner) after they have been received in the content management system's workflow. Occasionally, a task may take longer if issues need to be resolved or if there are complications, e.g., many new pages need to be added to a page's navigation. 

Sometimes web editors may have to reject tasks if information is missing, belongs on another page or is formatted incorrectly. If you want to be notified when your web update has been approved, please indicate so in your task notifications and or request to be notified by email: webcontent@uml.edu.

Urgent Approvals

In the case of a major error on a page or time-sensitive material, please email: webcontent@uml.edu or call 978-934-3875. It is the responsibility of the department editor to allow for adequate time for tasks to be reviewed before the content is published.

Alias Policy

An alias (also known as a redirect) brings users to a web page by using a shortened address. Aliases are often used for print publications and advertising. Aliases can be set up for web pages at the discretion of the web team. 

Aliases should be intuitive and follow the traditional format, www.uml.edu/anyname. Our staff can help you determine the best alias for your project. Please alert our team prior to referencing an alias in printor advertising materials to ensure the alias is working and doesn't already point to a different location.

To request an alias for a site, submit a web ticket.

Subdomains

UMass Lowell does not recommend subdomains (anyname.uml.edu). To maintain a clear presence in print publications and maximize search engine results, we recommend using aliases.

Best practices indicate that subdomains provide no benefit from a marketing perspective, require more work on the back-end to make them functional and have the potential to dilute search engine rankings. Additionally, using both subdomains and aliases is confusing to users as they navigate throughout the UMass Lowell website.

  • Up to 12 primary navigation (left-hand side) buttons are allowed, 10 (or fewer) are recommended. 
  • The current navigation menu format in Tridion enables three levels of navigation to be visible. Second and third levels “drop down,” or expand, when top level is clicked on. 
  • It is preferred that there are About and Contact pages for each site.

Site Design

A university-wide template has been designed with the flexibility to organize information in a variety of ways. The template works on all devices, meets federal accessibility standards and is optimized for search engines. Each site can be customized with photos, graphics and other content to maximize impact.

The university logo will be used for each site. Read more about our visual identity in our brand standards guide.

If a department has specific pictures or images, the designer will make every effort to incorporate them into the design. The designer may use stock photography if images from the department are not available. Clipart is not acceptable for website use. Please refer to other photography guidelines, including the hierarchy of photos.

Photos or other graphics (i.e., logos, graphs, charts, but not clipart) may be included in the content areas of department pages (as long as they meet image accessibility standards). There are restrictions to minimize download times:

  • Photos should be 800 pixels wide for on the page and 1600 pixels wide for the top of the page with a file size no larger than 256kb

Photo Galleries

For pages requiring more than three photos, a photo gallery should be used. Websites should not be used as an archive for dated photos or other materials. Please file a web ticket to have a gallery created and placed on your website. 

Photos on Bio Pages

Faculty and staff members are encouraged to use headshots on bio pages. They need to be a minimum of 800 pixels wide. You can submit your professional photos (color only) via our online biography update form. Professional headshot photographs can be taken at Eastern Photography, 5 Webber St., Lowell, 978-937-0101 for a minimal charge billed to your department. If a professional headshot is not available, the standard blue silhouette will be used. 

Guidelines

Here is general information about the difference between Department and Catalog content. To understand how to ask for changes visit "How to Make Changes to Department and Catalog Pages."

Department Website

The goal of departmental websites is to promote the departments’ benefits, research activities and achievements to prospective students, parents, researchers and job applicants. Department sites are maintained by the individual departments. Information includes:
  • Profiles of students, alumni and faculty
  • Department highlights
  • Overview of research and community activities
  • Information for current or prospective students
  • Faculty/staff biographies that link to curriculum vitaes and/or faculty websites

Online Academic Catalog

The goal of the online academic catalog is to provide policy and course information to prospective and current students to allow them to graduate in a timely fashion. The Academic Catalog:

  • Houses institutional admissions, academic and financial aid policies.
  • Provides course descriptions pulled from the SiS database.
  • Is maintained and monitored by the Provost’s Office.
  • Is not usually changed without updates going through the appropriate governing bodies. For example, a change to an undergraduate policy must first be reviewed and approved by the Undergraduate Policy Committee and then approved by the Faculty Senate.
  • Website includes graduate, undergraduate and continuing education information. Continuing Education data is maintained by the Division of Graduate, Online & Professional Studies (GPS).

Degree Pathways

Previously called courses of study, curriculum check sheets or career track information, Degree Pathways belong in the academic catalog. This information is an component in Tridion and then can be linked from the department pages. Undergraduate programs are maintained by the Registrar's Office to match SiS. Please contact the Registrar via email with any changes that need to be made to a degree pathway.

Graduate programs are maintained by the Provost's Office, Graduate Administration. Please send PDF or Word documents to the Director of Graduate Administration Deborah White by email: Deborah_white@uml.edu to be uploaded into the catalog. Once the link is live, a link can be created on the department page.

Web Maintenance Checklist

Keep your site current — build a maintenance team and review your content twice a year.