Why use the standard template?
Fundamentally, using the web templates will:- Support University branding
- Ensure a consistent look and feel across all University web pages
- Allow web pages to meet best practice usability and accessibility standards
- Include the mandatory standards prescribed in web publishing policy
- Improve site management and maintenance
Branding & Design quality
| Why use standard templates? | Why not differentiate? |
|---|---|
| Web templates ensure a baseline standard of design quality. Sites using the templates are guaranteed a level of good design. User experience consistency, and design quality effects the perception of the professionalism of the organisation. Users demand simplified and predictable website behaviour and uncluttered interfaces. | Differentiation of website design style and layout introduces the likelihood of degradation of quality of product as not all agencies and developers work to the same standards. Marcoms Branding Guidelines for Web Digital Media reference: "University design templates should be utilised wherever possible for consistency in brand experience and intuitive ease of navigation." Users are very perceptive of variation in quality and consistency of website content and interfaces. |
User experience
Why use standard templates? | Why not differentiate? |
|---|---|
| A user should be able to intuitively navigate all of an organisations websites with a reasonable level of consistency. Every time a user navigates from one site or section of a site to another (within the same organisation) there should be a familiarity in the site styling and branding, its behaviour and consistency of navigation placement. This point is highlighted by Jakob Nielsen: "Navigational structure and presentation is particularly important to standardise on [in web sites] in order to speed users on their way and prevent them from getting lost.? " | Users don't like unexpected behaviour. If a link or menu provides a new hurdle, it breaks the trust established between user and provider, and makes users less likely to explore or stay on a website. Challenging users each time with new layouts, placements of logos and navigational mechanisms creates frustration and time wastage for both the user and the designer of the site. |
Training & Maintenance
| Why use standard templates? | Why not differentiate? |
|---|---|
| Standard template use brings developer affinity across the University, to understand the nuances and intricacies of the standard set saves time, money and provides confidence to the developers involved. A standard template means that only one standard set of training for web authors is required. This also means these trained people are able to support the template. | Each new templates instance is an unsupported, non-standard template that requires additional time in learning;
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Change replication & cost
| Why use standard templates? | Why not differentiate? |
|---|---|
| A smooth and predictable transition from one suite of templates to future template state is possible and centrally-supported. Major template chances would require minimal changes and testing should they all be using one core set. | Re-engineering each non-standard template site and test for compliance is an enormous undertaking. A scenario where each of the estimated 250+ unimelb websites were off-template and in need of redevelopment, an average of 40 hours development and testing time each (at $80/hr) would cost an estimated $800,000. |
Technical & efficiency
| Why use standard templates? | Why not differentiate? |
|---|---|
| Inevitably, new web browsers and content delivery technology require changes to templates. Using standard, proven templates increases the chances of maintaining accessibility compliance, while performance across multiple browsers and operating systems is more predictable. Standard templates, using common files, increase the likelihood of content being cached, which in turn improves the user experience of visitors and cuts bandwidth costs to the University. | The ability to debug, test and globally and resolve issues across all branded websites is hindered by non-standard template proliferation. An example scenario of this problem was experienced with current (07) templates when, soon after release, an update in Safari introduced a problem in the template styling. A simple change was tested and rolled out, fixing all sites using the standard templates university-wide. Sites that were not on the templates were, of course, not fixed and the bug can still be found occasionally some two years after a fix was released. |