1. How much affinity to the NASA.gov portal does my website need to have?

2. What determines if a website should be part of the NASA.gov portal?

3. How do I determine which templates to use for my website?

4. Why do some links open in the same browser window and others in a new browser window?

5. Are the HTML templates provided compliant with Section 508 Guidelines for building accessible websites?

6. I don't have the Helvetica Neue font to create the graphical text; what font should I use instead?

7. Do my templates need to be a fixed width of 750 pixels wide?

8. Are the templates XHTML Transitional 1.0 compliant?

9. Are the CSS files compliant with the W3C standards?

10. What is the recommended image compression and format?

11. Why do some of the template images show up as a broken image link in my HTML editor?

12. Where can I find more information about the portal?

1. How much affinity to the NASA.gov portal does my website need to have?
Affinity with the portal depends largely on the goals of the office hosting the content. If providing users with the benefits associated with an information architecture (IA) that has been usability tested and validated, as well as meeting the requirements of oneNASA, then the choice should be: maximum affinity. Sites on the NASA network wishing to adopt a more complete or stronger visual affinity should utilize the underlying principles that govern the NASA.gov portal in addition to specific graphic standards and page layout.

If, on the other hand, a higher degree of design and IA flexibility is required, or if you have an IA that is already validated, and/or has been usability tested, then you should consider a lower affinity level.

The bottom line is that the closer the published content is to the portal content (i.e. articles, news stories, features, etc) then the greater the need for a tighter affinity to the portal.

The headers and footers can be used alone or in combination to achieve varying levels of affinity. The font usage can easily be adopted from the style sheets (css) used on the main portal, images should be treated in a similar manner, colors can be referenced according to the color guidelines devised for the portal UI.

2. What determines if a website should be part of the NASA.gov portal?
Some NASA websites can be migrated into the portal and either maintain their existing structure and information architecture or have all of their content imported into the portal site and adopt the portal structure and information architecture. Other sites are not appropriate for migration into the portal at all but are encouraged to add the affinity header and footer and possibly promote some of their content to the portal.

There are several factors to consider when evaluating whether or not a website should be migrated to the portal. Additional resources are available to provide you with more detailed information:
+ Read Full Portal FAQ
+ Portal Project Information
+ NASA Portal Content Migration Approaches (4.9 MB ppt)

3. How do I determine which templates to use for my website?
See the answer for question 1 above. If you need to build a website with a high affinity you should incorporate as much of the portal look and feel into your design as possible. If you are working towards achieving medium affinity then use then use the general look and feel of the portal and maintain some of the website's customized look and information architecture. For those looking to have only minimal affinity with the portal, the header and footer are the only pieces of the template that are needed.

4. Why do some links open in the same browser window and others in a new browser window?
Links to websites that are external to the current site open in a new browser window.

5. Are the HTML templates provided compliant with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act for building accessible websites?
The text-only templates are fully compliant with Section 508 standards. The high bandwidth HTML templates are generally 508 compliant. However, the rotating Flash banner will cause accessibility issues if the movie is not created to be compliant. It is recommended that you use the proper JavaScript files to detect browser settings.

To keep consistent with other sites in the NASA network, use the alt tags that have already been created for common images used in the header and footer.

6. I don't have the Helvetica Neue font to create the graphical text; what font should I use instead?
Helvetica is the recommended font to use as a substitute for Helvetica Neue.

7. Do my templates need to be a fixed width of 750 pixels wide?
The portal has a fixed width of 750 pixels with a white table centered on a black background. It is strongly recommended that your affinity websites adhere to this.

8. Are the templates XHTML 1.0 Transitional compliant?
Yes. The templates (both high and low broadband versions) are XHTML 1.0 Transitional compliant and have been validated by the W3C Markup Validator Service. After you've made changes to the HTML templates as you build your website it is recommended that you re-validate your files to ensure their XHTML 1.0 Transitional compliance is retained. Validate your XHTML files using the W3C Validator Service.

9. Are the CSS files compliant with the W3C standards?
Yes, the CSS files are compliant. If you make any changes to the CSS files to customize your affinity website it is recommended that you re-validate your CSS files.

10. What is the recommended image compression and format?
The goal of image compression is to format to the smallest-possible image size, with the least degradation in quality.

Use either Image Ready or the "Save for Web" feature in Photoshop 7, and ensure the jpeg format is used for all photos. The optimal quality setting is 50-60.

Use gif format for all graphics and thumbnails with large areas of solid color. Format using either 256 or 128 colors depending on the detail contained in the image. Ensure "Dither" is turned off, and use the "Adaptive" setting.

11. Why do some of the template images show up as a broken image link in my HTML editor?
The common image files in the templates (NASA title, NASA logo, FirstGov logo, search "Go" button and empty spacer image) are hosted on a NASA server. The templates link to their locations on the server rather than locally where you work on your files. This has been done to ensure that your affinity websites use the most recent version of common image elements. In the HTML editors these common images won't display, you must preview your HTML files in a browser with an active internet connection in order to preview the images.

Although it is recommended that you link to the images on the server you can download the common images in a zip file for those who prefer to work with the image files locally.
+ Download Common Image Files (zip)

12. Where can I find more information about the portal?
The Portal Project Information website contains useful documentation about the portal development, technologies, editorial guidelines, and recent activities.

The Style Guide documents all portal standards and guidelines for the user interface.

• On-line Version (NASA only)


• Download PDF (7.2 MB pdf)

Version Information