Page Alerts

Background

Location and design of the Page Alert is defined on toronto.ca WordPress pages, but could benefit from being defined in applications, external sites, etc.

Relevant data

A page alert is used to notify the public about a change or impact to a City service, or to flag a health advisory or notice. Some appropriate examples of when to use a Page Alert, include:

• facility closures

• program changes

• unavailability of online applications

• changes in service hours

The page alert cannot be closed or dismissed by the user.

Content to include in page alerts

• Hyperlinks may be included as part of the text, if the content is robust enough to require a separate page for detailed alert information

• Page alerts should be limited to text and necessary hyperlinks, should not include lists, bolding, italics, headings, in-line images

• Should be limited to 250 characters

• Content of the alert should be focused on the change or impact

Location on a page

Unless a reasonable business need is provided by the division and accepted by Digital Communications, the page alert will be located directly underneath the page title and span the full width of the page.

Exceptions must be approved. Approved exceptions:

• 311 Service Requests categories

  • The page alert applies to the sub-heading's content more than the H1

  • The page alert's content is derived from Salesforce, not WordPress

  • The user experience would be jarring if the user selected a sub-category and a page alert appeared at the top of the page disjointed from the category they selected. It may also give the appearance of the page 'bouncing' as the page's content would move down to accommodate the new alert for that category.

Design

https://www.toronto.ca/wp-content/themes/cot/css/cot.css?ver=1613671417

Options considered

Action items

Outcome