Common Look and Feel
Encyclopedia
The Government of Canada
’s Common Look and Feel (CLF) standard is defined by the Chief Information Officer Branch (CIOB) of the Treasury Board
Secretariat and evaluated through the "Effectiveness of Information Technology Management" element of the Management Accountability Framework (a balanced score-card approach to measuring management practices across all federal departments and agencies).
This standard governs branding, usability & accessibility
standards for government departments on the internet.
In 2000, the Canadian CLF 1.0 standard was implemented and government departments had almost two years to make their sites compliant.
In 2007, the Canadian CLF standard was revised and a 2.0 version was released. Organizations were given two years to comply.
This standard comprises the following four elements:
The CLF 2.0 standard is being updated to:
Government of Canada
The Government of Canada, formally Her Majesty's Government, is the system whereby the federation of Canada is administered by a common authority; in Canadian English, the term can mean either the collective set of institutions or specifically the Queen-in-Council...
’s Common Look and Feel (CLF) standard is defined by the Chief Information Officer Branch (CIOB) of the Treasury Board
Treasury Board
The Treasury Board is the Government of Canada's only statutory Cabinet committee and is responsible for the federal civil service much of the operation of the Canadian government. Among its specific duties are negotiating labour agreements with the public service unions and serving as Comptroller...
Secretariat and evaluated through the "Effectiveness of Information Technology Management" element of the Management Accountability Framework (a balanced score-card approach to measuring management practices across all federal departments and agencies).
This standard governs branding, usability & accessibility
Accessibility
Accessibility is a general term used to describe the degree to which a product, device, service, or environment is available to as many people as possible. Accessibility can be viewed as the "ability to access" and benefit from some system or entity...
standards for government departments on the internet.
In 2000, the Canadian CLF 1.0 standard was implemented and government departments had almost two years to make their sites compliant.
In 2007, the Canadian CLF standard was revised and a 2.0 version was released. Organizations were given two years to comply.
This standard comprises the following four elements:
- Part 1: Standard on Web Addresses - i.e. tbs-sct.gc.ca
- Part 2: Standard on the Accessibility, Interoperability and Usability of Web sites - ie.
- Part 3: Standard on Common Web Page Formats
- Part 4: Standard on Email
Future
With various concerns having been raised over problems created by the CLF requirements, future versions of the standard may see significant changes.The CLF 2.0 standard is being updated to:
- take into account the most recent version of internationally accepted Web content accessibility guidelines;
- increase flexibility of Website layout and design;
- enable institutions to incorporate the use of innovative and emerging technologies to their online information and services.