Instructions to Complete the Web Area Request Form

Many Editor in Chiefs (EICs) have completed the form Request to Create New Web Area In Drupal WebCMS only to have it rejected by OPA/OWC for one or more reasons. When this occurs, the EIC has to fill out the entire form again and resubmit it.

• Talk to your Web Council Member
• Complete the full title field correctly
• Check the Web Plan
• Have well-defined top audiences and tasks
• Complete the short name field correctly
• Complete the URL overwrite field correctly

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Talk to your Web Council Member

Let your Web Council Member know that you intend to complete the form. Some Web Council Representatives may require that they complete the forms for you. Consult the list of web council members and other key web contacts.

Complete the full title field correctly

The full title will appear at the top left of your homepage: 

Requirements:

• Do not include any unexplained acronyms or abbreviations.
• Your title should be precise. Accuracy is more important than brevity.
  • If your web area is about multiple cleanup areas around New Bedford Harbor, then your full title should not be "New Bedford Harbor", but something like " EPA Cleanups: Communities around New Bedford Harbor."
• The full title should be understandable.
  • "Environmental Issues in Chicago's Little Village and Pilsen Neighborhoods" is preferable to "R5 Little Village/Pilsen".
  • On the other hand, "Buffalo River Area of Concern" is OK because even though Joe Citizen doesn't know what an "area of concern" is, it's a defined term under an international agreement, and known by the site's top audiences.
• The title should reflect what your web area is about, not what it is.
  • "Environmental Protection in Indian Country" is preferable to "American Indian Environmental Portal."
• With rare exceptions, the title should be about a topic, not an EPA organization.
  • Curly Mustaches, not Office of Curly Mustaches.
  • Note that partnerships are not considered EPA organizations, so it is usually fine to have a web area about a partnership.

For further guidance and examples, see EPA's metadata standards for titles.

Still confused about what your full title should be? Email Angela Shogren

Check the Web Plan

• Confirm that your topic does not already exist in the Web Plan. There are times that a topic may already fit in best in an existing web area on EPA's website. Contact your Web Council member to discuss your project if you have any concerns or questions.

Have well-defined top audiences and tasks

How you describe your top audiences and their top tasks is critical. Your top audiences (1 – 3 of them) and their top tasks (1 – 3 for each audience) determine how you select, organize and write your content.

Step 4 of the "Step by Step" document for EICs discusses how to inventory and analyze your content to understand who is coming to your site, and what tasks they are trying to accomplish.

• Do not identify one of your audiences as the ‘public’ or ‘general public’ – this is not specific enough.
  • Ask yourself – who are you trying to reach? For example, concerned citizens; parents and families; students and teachers?
  • Thinking in terms of residential, recreational, commercial or industrial settings is another way to distinguish various elements of the public.
• Do not characterize your audiences as personas  (web audience archetypes).
  • Your listed audiences should not include “information consumers”, “information intermediaries” or “information interpreters”. Instead, your audiences should be examples of these archetypes: K-12 educator; librarians; scientists.
• State tasks from your audience’s perspective, not EPA’s perspective.
  • For example, "Find information about how eating lead paint chips can affect my child’s health," NOT "Provide information about how eating lead paint chips can affect your child’s health"
• Tasks should reflect actions and be specific. 
  • Don't just say:
    • Get basic information.
    • Find resources.
    • Get data.
  • Specify data, or resources, or information about what? Say:
    • Get information about the properties and health effects of radiation.
    • Find out how to get protection from radiation.
• Tasks may be related to one another, and build on one another. For example:
  • Audience 1: Children’s environmental health advocates, parents and educators
    • Task 1: Learn about environmental contaminants that impact children's health
    • Task 2: Learn about the places where children may be exposed to environmental contaminants
    • Task 3: Learn how to reduce or eliminate exposure to environmental contaminants
• Still confused about how to define your audiences and their top tasks? Email Angela Shogren

Complete the short name field correctly

The short name for your website will:

1. be displayed at the top of every internal page:

   

2. determine the URL for the site, unless you pick a URL overwrite on the form.
   • If the full title is "EPA Cleanups: Communities around New Bedford Harbor" and the short name is "New Bedford Harbor", then your URL will be https://www.epa.gov/new-bedford-harbor/ (again, unless you indicate that you want to have a URL overwrite -- for example, epa.gov/nbh).
   • Note that Drupal puts dashes between words in short names and all other URLs.

Requirements:

• The short name must be in English (wondering why? Re-read full titles and top audiences/tasks above).   A short name can be "New Bedford Harbor" but not "nbh" or "nbharbor".  The first letter of major words in the short name should be capitalized. 
• The short name generally should not include unexplained acronyms or abbreviations. 
  • You may ask: But isn't the short name supposed to be short?  Shorter than the full title, maybe, but it still needs to be understandable.  Imagine that you Google "asbestos" and find an EPA page that identifies the web area at the upper left as "AHERA": you may be unsure what the topic of the page or site is.
  • On the other hand, if the full title is "Buffalo River Area of Concern", "Buffalo River AOC" is acceptable for the short name because the top audiences for the site know what AOC means.
• Your short name can be less precise than the full title.
  • If the full title is "EPA Cleanups: Communities around New Bedford Harbor" then the short name can be "New Bedford Harbor."
• OFTEN the short name will be the same as the full title. 

Still confused about what your short name should be? Email Angela Shogren.

Complete the URL overwrite field correctly

Need an alias even shorter than the short name? Then specify it on the form in the URL overwrite field.

• You might need a URL overwrite if you think many of your visitors will be typing in the URL; for example, if they have seen it in printed materials.
  • If the full title is "San Francisco Bay Delta Watershed" and the short name is "San Francisco Bay Delta", then your URL will automatically be https://www.epa.gov/san-francisco-bay-delta/ (i.e., same as the short name). That is a lot to type, with a lot of dashes, so you may prefer something shorter like https://www.epa.gov/sfbay-delta/ .
• Acronyms and abbreviations for the URL overwrite are OK, as long as they are commonly used:
  • www.epa.gov/tri for the Toxics Release Inventory, for example.
  • But www.epa.gov/prw for our site on the Potomac River Watershed? No. In that case, do not specify a URL overwrite but create a short name "Potomac River" and let the URL be https://www.epa.gov/potomac-river instead. 

Still confused about whether you should use a URL overwrite, or if so, what it should be? Email Angela Shogren.