OU Campus CMS & Web Templates

All web pages used to conduct core university business or academic activities should utilize the official UWG's web templates to maintain consistent branding standards. These templates are embedded in Omni Update Campus Content Management System and available to faculty and staff to develop and maintain their official unit’s website.

Individual non-CMS web pages published by students, employees or non-university organizations that are hosted by the university and do not conduct university business or academic activities are encouraged to adopt the university's web guidelines and best practices for non-CMS web pages. Authors interested in using the official campus web designs outside the OU Campus CMS should contact UCM web services before initiating such a project.

Units and individuals with third party web applications should contact UCM web services prior to approximating the look and feel of the campus templates through local design.

OU Campus CMS

OU Campus is a Content Management System. It is NOT an html editor or a site design software, such as Dreamweaver or Frontpage. The basic premise of the CMS is that users will follow a pre-defined template and manage the CONTENT of their website more so than the style and layout. This is critical for those departments who don’t have access to a full time web designer as it gives control to the general staff member who need not have a background in web design or development tools, such as html code, CSS, or PHP.

OU Campus Account Creation & Change Policy

If you are new to working with the web at UWG, and you need to gain access to your department website, please review our Website Content Management System Policy (UWG Procedure 8.1.4), complete the OU Campus CMS Account Request Form online (unit head signature is required), and come to one of our OU Campus training sessions. This training session will teach you the basics of editing your department’s site.

Website Basics

URLs

It is recommended for URLs to be no more than two words. If there are two words, those words should be linked with a hyphen (-) not an underscore (_), This helps with Search Engine Optimization. In most cases, one word is sufficient.

Examples include: /deadlines; /tuition; /advising; /family-weekend; /help-desk

Use descriptive file names. File names for images, PDFs, Word documents or other files uploaded to the assets folder should be descriptive to aid in Search Engine Optimization. Spaces in a file name should be replaced with a hyphen (-) not an underscore (_).

Photography

High quality photographs capture the campus’s personality - making photography a powerful branding tool.

Additional information to know:

Images should be no larger than 300k.
Images used for anything other than purely decoration must have “Description” to accurately depict the content in the image.
Collage-style images are discouraged.
Images containing text are discouraged.
Images should be sized in accordance with Photography on the Web Guidelines (PDF, 1.6MB) Guidelines.

We've stocked OU Campus with high-quality photography that supports the university’s brand. You can find them in /assets/pics/stock/ root folder of your site.

To request custom photography, complete our UCM request form.

Videography

Only professional video, should be used for promotion of the university. Video produced for the web should typically range in length from 30 seconds to five minutes. Any video running longer than five minutes should be edited into two videos with shorter running times for the purpose of keeping the user’s interest and also to keep video file sizes manageable when uploading and subsequently streaming from the server.

To schedule an appointment to discuss your videography needs, complete our request form.

Web Colors

The university official web colors are blue (#0054a6) and red (#d9192c). Other colors and their purposes include:

Blue is a primary color used for headings and backgrounds.
Red is an accent color used for buttons and alerts.
Cool gray (#474c55) is a secondary color used for body text, headings, and backgrounds.
Very light gray (#edeff0) is used for backgrounds only.

Typography

Helvetica Neue font family is acceptable. Helvetica Neue Regular is used for body text, and Helvetica Neue Bold with reduced letter spacing (Tracking -80) is used for headings.

If Helvetica Neue is not available, the Arial typefaces are acceptable as a replacement.

Text Examples

Buttons or Call to Actions

Header & Footer

The official University's website header features a three-color Go West UWG Interstate Shield in the upper left corner, top links and icons, a primary navigation (on blue), and a background image. In addition a secondary navigation (on cool gray), a page title, a parent page name, and breadcrumbs are present on all web pages used to conduct core university business or academic activities.

The official University’s website footer features location and contact information for both the Carrollton and Newnan campus, additional navigation, social media links, a sitemap, our privacy policy and accreditation information.

Governance

Workflow

The workflow you use will vary depending on your department, the most common workflow pattern is two person workflow with an influencer and an author/editor/publisher.

An influencer initiates, consults, has a voice in what gets written and published for a particular area, signs-off on content as needed and has subject matter expert knowledge.

An author creates content that aligns with established guidelines and consults with the influencer.

An editor creates pages and edits text inside OU Campus, checks, approves the content within a particular area, catches errors and holds authors accountable to established guidelines.

A publisher does all final checks and publishing.

Website Inventory

UWG Website Inventory lists all departmental web pages used to conduct core university business or academic activities. Individual non-CMS web pages published by students, employees or non-university organizations that are hosted by the university and do not conduct university business or academic activities are not included. If your departmental website is missing from the list, or information is incorrect please use this form to submit an update.