Guidelines for Images on the UNE Web Site
Guidelines for selecting images
Guidelines for selecting images is discussed briefly in Guidelines for Content Writers, part of that information is reproduced here:
You may be required to or wish to have an image on the page that is appropriate for the content. Here are some guidelines that will help you choose these images:
Purpose and Target Audience
- Who is the target audience? For example: school-leavers, mature age, academics, alumni, staff
- What is the purpose of the web page copy? For example: recruitment, invitation, advertisement, information, instruction
- Does the chosen photograph relate to both the target audience and the purpose of the page?
Age and Gender Balance, and Equity Issues
- Does the photograph address age, gender and equity balance appropriate to the target demographic?
- In most cases it would be inappropriate to use photographs that depict only one gender or another.
- On a page with multiple photographs it would be appropriate to achieve a gender balance overall.
- Where possible the use of photos that represent different ages, genders and equity groups are required and without particular emphasis on any particular group unless specifically appropriate to the content of the page.
University Image
- Does the photograph show the University in the most favourable light?
- Do the subjects look happy and engaged (appropriate to the context)?
- Does the photograph depict attractive buildings, trees or landscape in accordance with the University’s image?
- Photo quality – is the photograph appealing and professional in terms of focus, lighting and aspect?
- Does the photograph display the most appealing and relevant perspective according to the content?
Copyright and Sign-off
- Does UNE own the copyright to the photograph? Does it require acknowledgement to the source and/or does UNE have the appropriate permission from the subject/s of the photograph?
- Original graphics, logos and images (other than photographs) should comply with UNE’s brand approval process and are not dealt with here. Please contact Marketing and Public Affairs for further information
Technical Guidelines
The most basic technical requirements are:- Image file size not to exceed 30K if at all possible
- Do not use images in place of text
- Use animated gifs or other animations sparingly if at all
Always add meaningful alt text to the image. This helps users with disabilities and those who have turned the image display off understand the meaning of the image. This is a required step in the page submission process in the UNEweb CMS if you have added the image using the form. You will need to add the alt text to the page code if you haven't done this. In the example of a column image below, the image code is :<img src="images/medicine4.jpg" alt="column image - Study Medicine at UNE" width="180" height="70" /> (the alt text is highlighted).
- If your image is a link to something, indicate that to your audience: "Go to ..." or "Download our ..."
- If your image is a transparent gif or empty gif, or the image has no information content but is purely decoration, the alt text you add when submitting the image should be a space (and if the image is purely for decoration, reconsider using it at all.
Images for course pages
- A short banner of dimensions 729x96 pixels at suitably compressed
- Banner should be indicative of the course
- An embedded image for testimonial/podcast of dimensions 168 pixels in width and leave the height to whatever is proportional to the width suitably compressed
Images for Subject Area pages
- A short banner image of dimensions 730 x 96 pixels suitably compressed
- Banner should be indicative of and unique to the subject area
- Banner is partitioned into 3 sections:
- Standard student picture
- Image indicative of and unique to the subject area
- Standard graduation picture
- An embedded image of dimensions 360 x 240 pixels suitably compressed
- Image should be indicative of the subject area
Examples
Images may be added to your sites pages. Please see above for image requirements of specific page types. There are, besides the banners already discussed, three main types of images can appear on UNE's secondary web pages. These are the column, splash and embedded image types. They may or may not be related to the column images that appear on the UNE Home Page.
Column images / Front page advertisments
Image dimensions:
- 180 x ~80 pixels
- Usage:
- Column images can be used above the side menu in any site (though not to be used in the menu of the Subject Area pages, or on the New and Amended Course pages) or on the right hand side in the secondary menu such as on the UNE front page.
- They have a fixed width to match the menu width and may be variable in height but should be between 40 and 100 pixels high.
- When used on the front page they are competing for real estate and should have relative heights depending on their relative importance.
- Together they should not have a combined height of more than 300 pixels.
- NOTE: As part of the UNE web site, all column images are required to have a 3px radius corner.
- Example image:
- Image dimensions:
- These can vary, but dimensions must be appropriate to the space, and not so large that the file size is much over 30K.
- Usage:
- Used to add context and interest to the content in a page. Could be a picture of a the physical location of a service, a typical user of the service or anything that helps add context to the content.
- Example images:
See this image used at: http://www.une.edu.au/library/podcasts/index.php
See this image used at: http://www.une.edu.au/law/why_une/
- Image dimensions:
- ~350 x ~180 pixels
Usage:
This is a special type of embedded image used to add interest to chunks of text, differentiate pages and provide visual information about the type of content on the page (eg images of mature age or international students may reflect the intended audience for that page).
- If a column images links to this page, having visual continuity between the two images helps guide the user and confirms they navigated to the correct place.
- As these images are designed to differentiate the page and add interest, they be any reasonable size, with any alignment (aligned right is preferable if a side menu is being used), and may optionally use the same radius corner as the column images.
- Example image:
See this image used on: http://www.une.edu.au/for/current-students/new-student-help.php