Announcements
- have a start and end date
- be relevant to the majority of users they will appear for
- only appear for a maximum of one week per showing (if needed they may show for a week, hide for a week, show for a week)
Announcement headings
- be 30 visible characters or less (including spaces, not including HTML markup)
- clearly indicate the general topic area
Announcement text
- be 200 characters or less
- provide links to additional information if possible/appropriate
- should use basic text formatting ("<em>", "<strong>", "<abbr>") only
- can use bulleted lists where appropriate
- avoid acronyms (and must not use acronyms some users will not understand)
- should not display the URL or path of links as part of the visible text
- cannot include images
- cannot use colour
Timing and positioning of announcements
All new announcements will be added at the top and gradually moved down as newer announcements are added. This maximises the freshness and effectiveness of announcements. Announcements should be requested for a maximum duration of 1 week unless there is a specific need for them to run longer.