The University of Southampton is in the middle of an epic journey. In this presentation, we’ll share that journey with you.
It began with the understanding that our hundreds of microsites and thousands of publishers had become unmanageable. The web content was growing at a rate of over 5000 pages per year and no one really knew how to make it stop! Not only was it impossible to manage and expensive to maintain, it was giving the users a poor experience and damaging the University’s brand. Something radical needed to happen.
The University hired Padma Gillen to help them navigate the path. Padma (who was formerly Head of Content Design at the Government Digital Service) has been helping us to develop a user-needs-based content strategy that works for the specifics of the higher education sector. Significant changes to governance and processes have been required to make this a reality, including a move to Agile.
This presentation will introduce you to user needs workshops, engaging with disgruntled academics, wooing senior management, tackling outdated content management systems and many other dangerous and no doubt familiar beasts.
Ayala Gordon, Southampton’s Head of Digital will co-present with Padma Gillen to tell the story, share lessons learned and set out the principles, strategies and approaches necessary to arrive successfully at an agile, user-centred content strategy that meets the needs of the HE sector.
Summary
- Title: User Needs, Content Design and Culture Change: Digital Transformation at the University of Southampton
- Type: Plenary
- Hashtag: #P7
- Speaker: Ayala Gordon, University of Southampton & Padma Gillen, Llibertat
- Date and time: 09.15-09.45 on Friday 13 July 2018
- Venue: Main lecture theatre (SLB/118)
Resources
- Twitter archive hosted on Wakelet
- Slides hosted on Slideshare
- Sketchnotes of talk by Kevin Mears
- Video hosted on YouTube