Quality Assurance (QA) Site Review

What we look for when doing a CMS site review.

Before we launch your new CMS site, our team conducts a QA review. While this list was compiled specifically with new CMS site launches in mind, it is also a useful guide for reviewing and refreshing your existing site.

Follow these requirements as you are building your site to avoid any delays to your site launch:

Requirements

Campus CMS-specific

These requirements are based on the way our Campus-CMS works. Violations here can cause errors or other issues for your site. These may differ from requirements you've experienced in other systems or programs.

1. Site uses approved page templates and modules
2. Every page content folder has a page named 'index'
3. Each page and folder name follows system name best practices
4. Metadata fields for each page filled in
   
   • This includes display name, title, summary, author fields
5. All assets (images, files, modules, pages) are in the appropriate folder (or subfolder)
   
   • Images should be in the _images folder, files in _files folder etc.
   • Move assets if needed
6. Unused assets are deleted
   • You can use the CMS relationships feature to see if assets are in use
7. Image and other uploaded file sizes are appropriate (PDF, Word file, etc.)
   
   • Anything over 1MB is likely too big. Compress or resize your images and PDFs when possible

General Page Content

These requirements are based on campus-wide guidelines on usability and accessibility, and are applicable to all UC San Diego sites (not just CMS sites).

8. Site follows UC San Diego Brand Guidelines including:
   • Approved colors, typography, and logo(s)
9. Headings are used correctly:
   • Each page has exactly one H1 heading
   • Headings used are in semantic order (H1 is followed by H2 etc.), and not based on design
10. Links are formatted properly. They:
    
    • Do not open in a new window
    • Indicate file type when linking to a PDF, Word file, etc.
    • Have informative link text -
      • No “Click here” or “Learn More,” see Button and link text options
      • Avoid URLs and filenames as link text
    • Are easily recognizable. Don't underline or color other text that could be confused for a link
11. Images follow image best practices including:
    • Completed alternative (alt) text
    • Any text displayed in the image itself is either added to the alt text or presented elsewhere on the page
    • Images are appropriately sized. Images that are larger than needed will cause performance issues.
12. Tables are used to display data only, not to layout your content on a page
    • Use our Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Layouts instead (advanced users)

Recommendations

These recommendations increase the usability and professional appearance of your site and pages.

1. Top level folder display names are short so that they fit on one line in the top navigation
2. Limit the content of a folder (pages or other folders) to 7 items or less
3. Drawer Page Template is only used for text heavy pages
4. Left column space (under the left navigation) is used sparingly
5. Content is web-friendly and follows writing for the web best practices including:
   • Left align your text
   • Use bulleted lists instead of indenting
   • Use meaningful title and headings