Building a new university website - an Agile content case study UPDATED JUNE 2016 IWMW16
My name is Richard Prowse, and I’m Head of Content at the University of Bath. I lead a seven-strong team responsible for bath.ac.uk. For the past ten years, I’ve led on digital content efforts at top-ranking English universities. I’m Co-founder of Bath’s first content meet up. I also blog and speak on the subject of Agile content development, content strategy and user experience.
Hello
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Content design and development goals
Deliver a single, unified digital presence by transitioning bath.ac.uk to a new publishing platform and website
Ross Ferguson: Delivering a digital strategy for the University of Bath
• Put users’ needs first • Make decisions based on data • Release iteratively and often • Keep things simple and consistent • Provide ongoing support • Work in the open
Bath’s digital delivery principles
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Outcomes
• Easier to navigate and find information • Content is relevant and useful • Quicker for visitors to complete tasks • Build a publishing community • Share standards and structure • Deliver a sustainable website
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Product development
Test
Iteration 1 Iteration 2 Iteration 3
Deliver
Sprint 1 Sprint 2
Deliver
DiscoverTest
DesignDevelop DesignDevelop
Discover
Deliver
DesignDevelop
DiscoverTest
Agile
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An Agile mindset
• Stay focused on what’s important • Learn through doing • Listen to others • Keep themselves and others honest • See failure as opportunity
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new bath.ac.uk
Example of content organised by department http://
www.bath.ac.uk/departments/international-relations-
office
Example of content organised by topic http://
www.bath.ac.uk/collections/worldwide/
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new bath.ac.uk
Example of a guide by http://www.bath.ac.uk/guides/
applying-to-study-at-bath-as-a-visiting-student/
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Ross Ferguson: Delivering a digital strategy for the University of Bath
• Put users’ needs first • Make decisions based on data • Release iteratively and often • Keep things simple and consistent • Provide ongoing support • Work in the open
Back to Bath’s playbook
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The original implementation of the Person profile content type17
Put users’ needs first and make decisions based on data
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Keep things simple and consistent
http://www.bath.ac.uk/guides/the-quads-student-accommodation/
• Build products not projects • Flex our approach depending on user need • Scalable way of working • Helps to develop people’s skills • Breaks down siloed working practices • Produces self-facilitating teams
Agile and Bath’s playbook work
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Talk
At the University of Bath, the digital products and services we work on aren’t one-off projects – they’re live and need constant improvement and maintenance. To meet this challenge we use an Agile approach to content design and development.
12 months into our programme of work to build a new website, I’ll talk you through our successes, share the challenges we’ve faced and explain how we overcame them.
Building a new university website - an Agile content case study