Drupal CMS: Checklist

Learn what to be aware of when creating and editing your website

Website go-live checklist 

1. Does your site have a navigation and menu? As standard practice across all UCL sites, a Home link must be added to the navigation that users can click on to navigate back to the site homepage. We recommend About, People, News, Events and Contact us links are added to the top navigation menu where applicable.
2. Links on teasers to pages within your website should be added using the 'Title URL' button and not by copying and pasting the URL. Copying and pasting the URL in teasers for links to within your website will 'code' the link which means the link can break in the future if you make changes to the pages you have linked to. 
3. Can you see the UCL logo in the banner clearly? i.e. the photo shouldn't be too dark in the top-right corner or it will obscure the UCL logo.
4. Does the site banner have text? It shouldn't as it is bad for accessibility.
5. Does all main content have appropriate headings? Remember the heading styles should go from H2, H3, H4 for accessibility
6. Are all images sized correctly? Images should be optimised for web and resized before uploading them to Drupal.
7. Are images named sensibly? This helps future editors find an image in the library - calling an image image01.jpg or image02.jpg is not helpful when searching for them... .
8. Has text been used on images? If so, this should be removed as it is bad for accessibility.
9. Has colour been used for signposting? e.g. if you use 'click on the red square', this can be bad for accessibility.
10. Do videos have captions? This is required for accessibility.
11. Do landing pages use teasers correctly? This means not too much text. 
12. Have Call to Action (CTA) buttons been used correctly?  Examples of when you use a CTA include getting users to do something such as apply, register etc. CTA buttons should not be used as a normal link.
13. Are any pages cluttered? Users tend to leave cluttered pages quickly... .
14. Any pages with too much text?
15. Have you made any links bold? Don't, they are links and making them bold confuses users.
16. Are there pages with too many inline links? Inline links are used a lot in Wikipedia. They are links in text - these type of links often makes users leave a page, so use sparingly.
17. Do links have proper keywords? A keyword is the kind of word users would search for in a search engine. This means you'd never use the words 'click here' as keywords, for example... .
18. Are any full URLs used as links? Don't, these should be replaced by relevant keywords to increase searchability.
19. Any empty or unfinished pages? If so, these should be removed from the menu or be unpublished!
20. Have you checked your site on a mobile device? Remember, the sidebar goes right to the bottom on a mobile phone so don't use this for important news.
21. Make sure you provide users with an attractive, useful and seamless journey through your site - maybe check with a friend / relative to see how they experience your site?

Help and support

web-support@ucl.ac.uk