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The purpose of a Service start

A Service start helps people find and access an online service by either navigating bath.ac.uk or using the site search. They also make it easier for people who regularly use a service to find it again on the website.

Create a Service start when you want to:

• link to an online service, tool, or transaction outside bath.ac.uk like Moodle or the car parking permit application
• explain what the service does
  
• give instructions for accessing the service and link to related guidance

Don't create a Service start to link to something that isn’t a service, tool, or transaction. For example, if you need to:

• link to an external web page from a Landing or Topic page, you should create an External item
• give guidelines for using a service, then you should create a Guide

Read more about choosing a content type for your web content.

Appearance

Service starts are short and simple. They only need to give brief information and then link through to the service or tool.

The service link appears as two call to action buttons. One is at the top and one is at the bottom of page.

You can also add links to related guides and contact information.

Examples of a Service start page

• Request help with Flickr content
• Register and apply for student accommodation
• Book a workspace

Accessibility

You must make sure your digital content is accessible.

As a public sector body, we're  to make the content on our website as accessible as possible.

The government checks our web pages to make sure they comply with the internationally recognised guidelines from the .

Find out more about accessibility and contact beta-content@bath.ac.uk if you have any questions.

Before you create a Service start

Before you create a new Service start, check the Service start filtered list to see whether a page already exists.

If there isn’t an existing Service start page, you will need to decide whether it would be more helpful to users if your page is for the whole service or an individual task. For example, it's more helpful for staff to know they need to access Employee Self-Service to complete a variety of tasks related to their employment, while for students wanting to pay their accommodation fees, they will be task-focused.

You should also decide whether your department is the right one to own the Service start page, or if the service or process would be better owned by someone else.

Naming your Service start page

The way you name your Service start depends on whether your page is for a service or a task-based process.

If it’s a service, the title can be the name of the service, such as 'Room Request System'. Use the full name of the service without acronyms, for example, ‘Manager Self-Service', not ‘MSS’.

If it’s a task-based process, the title can be named after the action the user needs to take, such as ‘Request help with Flickr content’ or ‘Apply for a staff parking permit’.

Never start your Service start page title with ‘Log in to’.

Writing a Service start summary

Use the summary to describe who can use this service and what tasks they can complete through it. Include any other terminology for the service, such as the supplier's name, if it is widely used and understood.

Adding labels

You can add Labels to your page if you're an Editor or Admin, but you don’t need to add Labels and should only use them to:

• pin content to a Topic page
• create a filtered list of related pages

Don't use Labels for any other reason. Labels don't function like search keywords or tags on a blog. If you use Labels incorrectly, your content could appear in the wrong place on the website.

Find out more about using Labels in Typecase.

Writing usage instructions

Explain what the service is for and the information users will need before they start using it, such as their University username and password.

Make it clear when an action is required by the user, for example, 'You must log in to SAMIS to access these records' rather than 'Log in to SAMIS'.

If the service is hosted or owned by a third party, say who this is, for example, 'Our laundry card top-up system is managed by '.

If you need to include detailed instructions, create a Guide and link to it using the Related guides component.

Adding a link to service

You must add a link to the service, tool, or transaction. This will create two buttons that appear at the top and bottom of the page.

Make sure your call to action text:

• is active, for example, 'Log in to Employee Self-Service', not 'Employee Self-Service log in'
• makes the destination of the link clear to the user
• does not end in a full stop

Bottom of the page components

You can choose to add two components at the bottom of the page. These are:

• Related guides component
• Contact us component

You can add up to six Guide pages to the Related guides component, and up to two sets of contact details.

You should add Contact details to your page so people know who to contact if they have questions about your content.

Adding responsible Organisations and Groups

After you have added all your content, you will be able to select an owner or associated group for your page. This allocates permissions for who in the organisation is able to maintain the content.

A guide for adding responsible Organisations and Groups is available to help you do this.