Following the recent posts on “IWMW 2018: Participants’ Feedback” and “IWMW 2018: Feedback on the Plenary Talks” this post provides a summary of the feedback received on the workshop sessions and masterclasses held at the IWMW 2018 event.

A total of eight workshop sessions were held from 16.15-17.45 on the first day of the IWMW 2018 event,

IWMW 2018: The Workshop Sessions

A total of eight workshop sessions were held from 16.15-17.45 on the first day of the IWMW 2018 event, Wednesday, 11 July 2018. The following table lists the sessions and provides links to the session abstracts and further information including, when available, links to slides used by the workshop facilitators.

A1: Yorkie Bars, Jammie Dodgers & Seven Other Essentials For Successful Usability Testing. Facilitated by Paul Kelly, University of York. A2: Optimising Your Content Management System. Facilitated by Stephen Evans, University of St Andrews. A3: You’ve Got (Too Much) Mail: Encouraging Self-Service Through Improving Content. Facilitated by Lauren Tormey and Duncan MacGruer, University of Edinburgh.
A4: Solving Problems and Making Friends Using Design Sprints. Facilitated by Steve Burrows, University of Dundee. A5: Content Strategy: A Learning Journey. Facilitated by Sarah Fisher, University of Kent. A7: How to Market Something No-one is Searching For Facilitated by Duncan Ireland, University of the Highlands and Islands.
A8: Designing Usability Tests to Solve Common Problems. Facilitated by Melanie Read, University of London and Marie Kitney, Numiko. A9: Expertise in Your Ears: A Rough Guide to Podcasting. Facilitated by Dave Musson, The Native.

The three highest ranked workshop sessions were:

  1. Expertise in Your Ears: A Rough Guide to Podcasting (session A9) facilitated by Dave Musson, The Native
  2. Solving Problems and Making Friends Using Design Sprints (session A4) facilitated by Steve Burrows, University of Dundee.
  3. You’ve Got (Too Much) Mail: Encouraging Self-Service Through Improving Content (session A3) facilitated by Lauren Tormey and Duncan MacGruer, University of Edinburgh.

The comments received for these three workshops included:

Expertise in Your Ears: A Rough Guide to Podcasting (session A9), facilitated by Dave Musson, The Native

This session received 3 ratings of 5 (excellent) and 1 gave rating of 4 (very good), giving an average of 4.75. The following comments were made:

  • Great to attend a hands on workshop session and actually produce something on the day.
  • Was meant to attend A9 but was unable to attend due to checking into accommodation. Being able to check in prior to the conference would have avoided this.

Solving Problems and Making Friends Using Design Sprints (session A4) facilitated by Steve Burrows, University of Dundee.

This session received 5 ratings of 5 (excellent) and 2 gave rating of 4 (very good), giving an average of 4.71. The following comments were made:

  • Great participative session by Steve, well timed, bursting with practical advice and with an immediately useful output. Well-managed given the time constraints
  • I got a lot out of this session, I intend to use the technique of crazy 8 sketching for a whole range of things other than design sprints. They are a simple but effective way of coming up with creative solutions for pretty much anything.
  • Very interesting and useful session – possibly not enough time available
  • Really useful and great information
  • Well run , lots of resources, and even the sometimes tricky bit of cajoling people to contribute and participate went smoothly. Again – a thing to bring back and try.
  • Lots of information to cram into this one session, so don’t feel like I quite got it all. This could have been a half-day session, easily.

You’ve Got (Too Much) Mail: Encouraging Self-Service Through Improving Content (session A3) facilitated by Lauren Tormey and Duncan MacGruer, University of Edinburgh

This session received 3 ratings of 5 (excellent) and 4 gave rating of 4 (very good), giving an average of 4.43. The following comments were made:

  • Given me some ideas for my team to tackle user pain points and make some business process improvements
  • It felt a bit rushed but the content was very useful.
  • The session was clearly very well planned, had lots of interactions to keep us going/engaged and both facilitators were interesting and presented well. Loved the cookie!
  • Great examples of usability testing, good exercise of actually writing some content. Interesting to see how Edinburgh approach content creation and what their constraints are.
  • This was really good. An excellent example and exercise with real life content. Only marked as 4 as it overran slightly
  • Interesting videos of usability tests with students and the issues they experience when the content is confusing and misleading.
  • First time I’ve done pair writing, I’ll be taking it back to use at work.

Additional feedback for the remaining workshops is given below.

Yorkie Bars, Jammie Dodgers & Seven Other Essentials For Successful Usability Testing (session A1) facilitated by Paul Kelly, University of York

  • Paul was very adept in explaining how his institution goes about user testing. Although I didn’t learn too much about new techniques, it was good to see how other institutions carry out their testing. Paul could have convered things like the metrics he uses, and could have explained more about the development of user testing tasks and their scenarios (we follow a simulated work task approach). But overall, Paul seemed like a perfectly competent and professional speaker, very well done.
  • I really liked the hands on usability session.
  • I was perhaps already doing a lot of what was discussed in this workshop so didn’t really pick up anything new as such. Perhaps a few tools to try out. As always, great to find out what other institutions are doing.

Optimising Your Content Management System (session A2) facilitated by Stephen Evans, University of St Andrews

  • Discussing how to build an efficient site. Steve and At Andrew’s team and to be fair the Scottish We’re universities were stars of the show.
  • This was very developer focused – so as a content person, it was interesting but not as applicable.
  • A very well facilitated workshop. Some good conversations, mostly just reinforcing the need to keep things sensible and tidy.

Content Strategy: A Learning Journey (session A5) facilitated by Sarah Fisher, University of Kent

  • This ended up being a good session because of the sidetracks it went down and the interchange between participants.
  • Useful guidance and documentation provided, but Sarah ran out of time so we never got to any of the interactive/group work so the session ended up being less of a workshop and more being talked at for the whole time.
  • More time for group work would have been helpful.

How to Market Something No-one is Searching For (session A7) facilitated by Duncan Ireland, University of the Highlands and Islands

  • Thought the talk was interesting and well delivered, and I definitely picked up a few ideas we could use in our context. Would love to see more stuff about social ads in future – would be great to get someone in from another sector on this topic to share experiences and expertise. Just a shame about the all-male audience – it’s the only time I felt the atmosphere became a little bit competitive (though obviously nothing the speaker or organisers could do about this).
  • More of a case-study than a workshop, but it explored some tricky issues (location, budget and personnel) that few of us have to encounter and invited discussion around how and why we as marketeers need to exert more influence so we become an important voice when courses are being considered and planned.

Designing Usability Tests to Solve Common Problems (session A8) facilitated by Melanie Read, University of London and Marie Kitney, Numiko.

No comments on the session were provided.


IWMW 2018: The Masterclasses

A total of seven masterclasses  were held from 14.50-17.30 on the second day of the IWMW 2018 event, Thursday, 12 July 2018. The following table lists the sessions and provides links to the session abstracts and further information including, when available, links to slides used by the masterclass facilitators.

B1: Your Digital Activities Need a Governance Framework, Yesterday. Facilitated by Claire Gibbons. B2: Digital Training Masterclass. Facilitated by Jennifer Hamrick, University of St Andrews. B3: How to Overcome Resistance to Build a User-centric Site. Facilitated by Paul Boag.
B5: Customer Journey Mapping. Facilitated by Rob Ryder-Richardson, University of Dundee. B7: Forever User-Centred, The GDS Way. Facilitated by Karl Orsborn, Wunder. B8: Maximising User Experience with Limited Resource. Facilitated by Adrian Binzaru, Gecko Engage and Megan McFarlane, University of Aberdeen.
B9: Overcoming SEO Challenges to Optimise Your Website. Facilitated by Russell Sneezum and Dan Sitner, Siteimprove.

The three highest ranked masterclasses were:

  1. How to Overcome Resistance to Build a User-centric Site (session B3) facilitated by Paul Boag
  2. Digital Training Masterclass (session B2) facilitated by Jennifer Hamrick, University of St Andrews
  3. Customer Journey Mapping (session B5) facilitated by Rob Ryder-Richardson, University of Dundee

The comments received for these three workshops included:

How to Overcome Resistance to Build a User-centric Site (session B3) facilitated by Paul Boag

This session received 11 ratings of 5 (excellent) and 2 gave rating of 4 (very good), giving an average of 4.85. The following comments were made:

  • A typically intense session with Paul, however some fantastic examples of how to overcome the normal resistance. Also some excellent tricks to avoid getting stuck down impasses with senior people.
  • I went into this expecting an inspiring, idea-filled three-hour rant and that’s exactly what we got, plus loads of audience participation. Top stuff.
  • Tour de force from Paul Boag. Packed full of useful content and delivered with incredible enthusiasm. Surprised he didn’t need a lie-down afterwards.
  • Paul was engaging as ever, but would have preferred a more interactive element to the session rather than just presenting from slides and discussing.
  • Paul’s energy and enthusiasm was truly infectious. He made you re-evaluate how you do things/how things get done and challenged you to think differently. His ideas around how to maintain control made me feel empowered.

Digital Training Masterclass (session B2) facilitated by Jennifer Hamrick, University of St Andrews

This session received 4x ratings of 5 (excellent), 0 gave rating of 4 (very good) and 1 gave a rating of 3 (good), giving an average of 4.60. The following comments were made:

  • Well organised and useful. I learned a lot from this session and I hope I can apply this training techniques to my work soon.
  • It was useful
  • Really detailed practical advice – will be using this very soon, and the Masterclass has really confirmed a way forward for us.
  • Exactly what it said on the tin!

Customer Journey Mapping (session B5) facilitated by Rob Ryder-Richardson, University of Dundee

This session received 5 ratings of 5 (excellent) and 5 gave rating of 4 (very good), giving an average of 4.56. The following comments were made:

  • An excellent session. As stated above, this opened my eyes to the need for different sets of perspectives and different interception points. I find myself slightly fortunate to have been grouped in ‘Disney’, as I think this afforded some expansive opportunities. As Rob noticed, we fairly organically reached the point of the exercise, which was to see the journey as a cycle – the experience should encourage a repeat journey.  This workshop has expanded my view of project management. It will help me understand where I (and others) fit in to affect a particular journey.
  • A hands on way of learning about the process. Very well prepped by Rob.
  • Great host, very informative
  • Informative and practical – great.

The following comments were made for the remaining four masterclasses.

Your Digital Activities Need a Governance Framework, Yesterday (session B1) facilitated by Claire Gibbons

  • Well structured. Personally I’d already covered a lot of the leadership & change aspects of this in other training that I’ve been on recently, so I feel I could have spent more time on just governance (as it’s such a huge and complex topic). But appreciate that not everyone in the room was in the same boat.
  • Wonderfully helpful and constructive.
  • Superlative and practical session from Claire, well-delivered and kept to time – everyone should do this one
  • Claire presided over this masterclass masterfully, which is tough when we’re all desperately trying not to fall asleep after such a late night. The activities were well-considered and got us thinking. One slight drawback is that the connection between governance and leadership could have been made more explicit.

Forever User-Centred, The GDS Way (session B7) facilitated by Karl Orsborn, Wunder

  • Some great insight on how to shift into the GDS methodologies
  • Presenter read from the slides too much but the exercises we did were very helpful and course search very relevant to what I’m currently working on
  • Facilitator came across well, obviously an expert in service design. Enjoyed the interactive element. Would recommend that the presenter avoids putting so much content on each slide and then reading each word, felt it slowed things down a bit.
  • Great hands-on class, with an ‘enforced’ team work element, which was a good opportunity to get to know some the attendees better, under ‘stress’.

Overcoming SEO Challenges to Optimise Your Website (Session B9) facilitated by Russell Sneezum and Dan Sitner, Siteimprove

  • This was an excellent session. I went there with basically no experience of SEO and came out with a broad understanding of the various problems we might encounter and possible solutions to them. After learning the masterclass was being held by a vendor I was a bit skeptical whether or not this would be a learning experience or a sales pitch. But there wasn’t a single moment during the whole session it felt like a sales pitch. They even gave recommendations on free tools to use to improve SEO on your website before they even mentioned SiteImprove!
  • OK – a few ideas, but not much practical advice.

Maximising User Experience with Limited Resource (session B8) facilitated by Adrian Binzaru, Gecko Engage and Megan McFarlane, University of Aberdeen

  • Was good – some info about the Gecko tool and how it could be used.  Would have been nice to see more.  Finished at 4pm so felt it was sort of cut short.  Could have been more.

Acknowledgements: Featured image taken from a tweet posted by @KayleighWoods4