Following website guidelines offers numerous benefits, including enhancing brand reputation, improving user experience, boosting SEO rankings, and ensuring compliance with accessibility and web standards.
Minot State University websites can be created by and for:
Follow the MSU Brand Guidelines for web applications.
One-on-one training for power users is available upon request, and all other website requests for non-core assets should be made to Anton Huether, MSU webmaster.
Third-party applications must adhere to brand standards to maintain consistency and integrity across all digital platforms. Vendors are expected to comply with brand standards, and if they have difficulty meeting these standards, they should contact the marketing department for assistance. Additionally, all third-party applications are subject to brand review to ensure a cohesive user experience across web applications.
By following these Content Standards & Requirements, you can create a well-organized, user-friendly website that meets the needs of your audience and complies with web accessibility standards.
Site Organization
Optimizing your site's content organization is key to enhancing the user experience. By grouping folders as clusters of related information, you make it easier for users to navigate deeper into the site. Remember, if content is hard to find, users may leave. So, ensure that the most important information is within a top-level folder to keep users engaged.
Site Navigation
Navigation is the user's roadmap. Present information in a way that users can easily understand and find. Keep the following in mind:
A good website meets user needs and delivers a positive experience. When creating, updating, or maintaining a site, consider the following questions:
Clear and Concise
Audience-Focused
Speak to your audience instead of “at” your audience.File Naming
Name files appropriately to reflect their contents.
Mobile-Friendly
Ensure content is not overwhelming on mobile devices and does not require excessive scrolling. Use features like accordions to minimize scrolling.
Copyright Compliance
Do not use images without permission. Avoid using images from Google.
Photo Resources
The Minot State Marketing Office conducts formal photo sessions of students and faculty throughout the year. See what photos are available for use in our photo gallery. This photo gallery is for internal Minot State use only.
Optimized File Sizes and Formats
Incorporate photos/graphics in headers or pages. Specific file types and sizes should be used for web applications. Request sizing for web from Anton Huether or Tiffany Pierson.
To protect brand integrity and ensure accurate, trustworthy communication, AI‑generated images are not allowed on any Minot State University website or any online software, platforms or digital tools used to represent the university. This includes:
Using authentic, real photography helps maintain credibility, avoids legal and copyright risks, and supports consistent branding across all university communications.
If you believe your project requires an exception, please contact the Marketing Office. Requests will be reviewed on a case‑by‑case basis.
Make websites usable by people of all abilities. Adhere to accessibility guidelines and ensure equal access to all information and services.
Avoid PDFs
Create pages or posts instead of uploading PDFs to ensure better accessibility and search engine indexing.
If a PDF must be used, it should be fully accessible—proper tagging, readable order, alt text, and selectable text are required. PDFs should be used sparingly, and HTML pages are always preferred for accessibility, usability, and mobile responsiveness.
Proper Table Use
Avoid using tables for page layout. Tables should only be used to display data in a structured, tabular format.
Users with disabilities rely on alternative browsers like screen readers and speech output browsers. Using tables for layout can create unnecessary barriers and make content difficult to navigate.
Images on the Web
Do not place text inside images—especially banners. Text within images is not readable by screen readers, cannot be indexed by search engines, and becomes difficult to read on mobile devices due to scaling. Use the built‑in text fields provided in the CMS to ensure content remains readable, accessible, and responsive.
Images must include descriptive alt tags so users with visual impairments can understand the purpose of the image through the screen readers.
Heading Hierarchy
Headings should follow a logical order to meet web accessibility requirements:
Page Title / H1:
Main Content Area:
