Style Guide

Here are some guidelines for creating and linking pages on the site. In some cases we follow these closely, but in others they represent a goal.

Writing

When referring to the name of the project or the site, use Go Botany (no hyphen).

Information Architecture

Try to make link labels and their target page headings match as closely as possible. (At this point we follow this pretty well for items listed in navigation areas. Elsewhere we do not always follow it yet. Some items have generic buttons such as "learn more"--these might be an exception for us.)

URLs should follow as many of the usual guidelines as possible (short, easy to speak, lowercase, etc.). When changing a URL, consider redirecting the old one to the new one for at least a period of time.

In general, avoid opening links in new windows. Otherwise at least warn the user with an "opens in new window" label or icon.

Web Standards

Follow the usual guidelines for good semantic HTML structure: use a hierarchy of headings and paragraphs, use tables only for tabular information displays or in some cases forms, use unordered or ordered lists for lists of items, etc.