We were approached by Campus Services to update their web presence as part of a wider project to rework FMD’s online content. Our team worked with Campus Services to develop a suite of sites with a structure based on user needs, rather than organisational hierarchy. This included conducting user testing to identify the needs of University staff, as well as working with Campus Services staff to write content appropriate for the web, based on their internal documentation.

Lessons learnt

User testing doesn’t have to take a long time

As a team we’ve long felt that user testing is an invaluable tool when creating functional sites. However, concerns over high costs and the time commitments required to conduct user testing have often limited its use. With this project the potential users of the sites (University staff) were easily accessible and by picking a few likely candidates and ringing them directly, we were able to get some really useful feedback which helped to inform the structure and content of the sites.

A process is needed for identifying and removing obsolete content

Campus Services, as with many units that have long had a web presence, had a large amount of content, links and references across the University’s web presence. These loose ends continued to crop up for some weeks after the launch of the new suite of sites, making it clear that our team need to create a more defined process for identifying such content and taking the necessary steps. We’ve gone some way towards this, working with ITS to develop a process for archiving and removing old sites, as well as identifying further steps that we can implement next time we work on a similar project.

See the sites:

• Campus Services
• Cleaning Services
• Lost property
• Parking
• Portering Services
• Postal Services
• Security Services