NYU Libraries LibGuides Style Manual

Overview

NYU Libraries uses Springshare LibGuides as the platform for making research, how-to, course, and programming guides available to our users. This manual provides how-to advice on creating and maintaining guides, with special emphasis on standards to follow to ensure:

• a cohesive visual identity
• consistent user experience
• maximum accessibility across all guides

The standards are influenced by three sets of well-established guidelines:

• Universal Design for Learning
• The A11Y Project (a digital accessibility initiative)
• Responsive Design (to smoothly adapt to tablet and phone)

The standards steer guide creators toward designing for optimal use, which involves employing best practices relating to:

• guide layout
• stylistic choices (e.g. heading structure, font, use of color and images)
• A11y accessibility
• use of assets (e.g. media widgets, database links, web links)
• cognitive load concerns
• writing for the web (clear, concise, chunked content)
• metadata and search engine optimization

The goal is to enable guide authors to reach their creative and pedagogical vision within the parameters outlined in this manual.

Getting More Help:

The information and content within this Guide is for reference purposes.  The information contained within this Style Manual may not be entirely relevant to every Guide created in every situation, but should be used as a foundation for making decisions about Guide and Guide content you create.  Please submit any questions you may have about the LibGuides system to the LibGuide Working Groups Contact Form (Qualtrics).  

The Style Manual is maintained by the LibGuides Working Groups (Wiki page available to NYU only).

Use the checklist document below as you design your guide to be sure you're hitting all the marks and best practices. Go over the checklist again before you publish it, and correct any discrepancies.