Document status: This is the current version. Please ignore earlier versions.
What is the current situation?
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- Provide a profile of the school and its activities, demonstrating its strengths and distinctiveness.
- Provide a base for school-specific study and research material and research information and materials for current students. (Longer term, this may live in a student learning area of the homesite.)
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Audience | Information needs |
|---|---|
Prospective staff | Is this somewhere I'd like to work? What do they do? Who else works here? |
Prospective students, including international students, and their influencers | Understand the strengths and features of the school. Why would I choose to study here? What would it be like being a student here? |
| Prospective research partners (industry and business, government (central, local), other universities) | Understand the strengths and features of the school. Why would I work with them? Who are their people? What are their areas of expertise? |
| Current students - both coursework and research | Study and research material and information that is distinct to the school/programme. |
Home
| Intro | Intro block - brief. Linking to main intro. |
| Contacts | Contact block. |
| News | Research projects, student achievements etc. |
| Events | Seminars, conferences, careers events, lectures etc. |
| Links: | Centres and institutes (if located elsewhere) Faculty site |
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| Introduction | Strengths, unique features. Vibrant, exciting, makes an emotional connection. Like a walk down Cuba St? Include a video tour? Consider including a 1-minute video from HOS. |
| What we do | Possibly part of the introduction? A description of the work the school does, with links to relevant content on the homesite (eg: Topics; Degrees; Postgrad quals; Research projects; Centres and institutes). May be a series of visual 'promo' links. |
| Location and facilities | Link to Our campuses on the homesite. Retain info about facilities, building/floor access, health and safety, and similar - although potentially this should be located in 'Current students'.? |
| Students | A small collection of features covering the university experience of recent students. |
| Staff | People finder tool? All staff associated with the school. Not presented in a table. |
| Alumni | Link to alumni area in the new 'engagement hub'. Retain on the school site any school-specific information for alumni (eg, newsletters, how to sign up). (But note that this may move to the engagement hub eventually.) |
| Positions | Eg, Academic Visitors' Programme, Fellows, Curator in Residence (School of Art History). |
| Partners | Accreditation, affiliations, prof bodies, industry assns and partnerships, sponsors, donors. |
| Publications | Link to mainsite for relevant publications - eg: School Prospectus, Faculty Handbook. |
Student info
Purpose: School-specific information for current students by coursework and research students.
Content will vary by school - below is indicative only.
(Note that longer term, study and research material and resources may live in a student learning area of the homesite.)
| Facilities | Eg:
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| Resources | Study and research resources - eg: databases, software, online written resources. Example: School of Linguistics |
| Study groups | Student study groups. |
| Work experience and internships | (Amend nav label as relevant to the content) Will only be required by a few schools - eg, ECS |
Links (a tentative list) | 'Current students' - eg:
> Prizes
Research section Areas of study (topics, degrees, postgrad programmes) Research information - including:
'Current students' - eg: Student services and support / New students / Wellbeing / Clubs
Centres, Institutes and Chairs - if located elsewhere
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Faculty area
Purpose
- Provide a profile of the faculty, including its purpose, roles and responsibilities; structure and affiliations.
- Enable staff in different roles at the faculty to be easily identified and contacted.
Audiences
Audience | Information needs |
|---|---|
Prospective staff | Understand the strengths and features of the faculty. Is this somewhere I'd like to work? Who else works here? |
| Current students - both coursework and research | Find out about Student and Academic Services - what they can help with, how to contact them. |
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| Intro | Intro block - brief. Linking to main intro in 'About us'. |
| Who to contact | Contact block. Include Student and Academic Services. |
| Our schools | 'Quicklinks' to schools. |
| Links (a tentative list): Research Centres and institutes | Areas of study (topics, degrees, postgrad programmes) Research Centres, institutes and chairs (if located elsewhere) |
Content
| About us | Purpose and role of faculty. Strategic objectives. Strengths and features. Org chart. Link to faculty handbook. |
| Location | Link to Our campuses. Include faculty-specific info about facilities if necessary. |
| Staff / Faculty staff | People finder tool? All staff associated with the school. Not presented in a table. Student and Academic Services - who, what, when (counter hours), where. |
| Forms | As on faculty sites now - large number of downloads. (May move to 'Current students' in the future.) |
| Mission, vision and values | If required |
| Committees and boards | If required. Complex information needs to be simplified or 'flattened' out - not nested too deeply. |
| Affiliations | If relevant at faculty level (rather than school level) |
Dean's list | Dean's list, Dean's award. |
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- Sections/areas, not separate sites.
- Much smaller and simpler - audience focused, clearly defined purpose.
- Content much more integrated with mainsite. Content exposed in key areas of site where visitors are looking at related material. . Strong links from F and S areas.
- No content duplication.
- Flexible approach - 'local' content that has no logical home on mainsite remains on school site.
- Aligned with mainsite approach for content being organised by task, topic or user group - not by organisational structure.
- Encourage people to think about F&S content (rather than F&S 'sites').
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Risks
work in progress: anne
| Risk | Likelihood | Impact | Mitigation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Faculty and school staff may not support the approach; or may support it on face value, but not really understand how it works. | H | H Approval for the approach may be obtained, but when work starts there could be repeated rounds of negotiation required, putting stress on relationships and timeframes. F&Ss could go along with the approach, but build their own sites, wikis (etc) independently. | See the consultation on the approach as a process of change and education. In particular, staff in faculties and schools (who? the decision makers? administrators? managers?) need to understand and buy in to the user-centred approach to IA (rather than organisational unit-centred) and plain language. This may mean having more mini-workshops and meetings with groups of staff. Showing built examples of key deliverables will help stakeholders visualise where they need to get to (eg, topic page, UG degree page (if changed), F&S area). Faculties and schools may feel theyReiterate the benefits (better design, reduced content management, their content more accessed in other areas. Works for their users). |
| Faculties and schools may feel they are losing their online identities. | H | H Socialisation of the approach may take a long time. F&Ss may build independent sites. | Outline clearly how their content will be found from their areas. |
| Include a strong profile of the faculty or school on the example page. Show how linking from their area to their content in other parts of the site will work.
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| The approach may take a long time to implement. | H | L-M Faculty and school sites won't change for some time: they may continue to have old design and content. Current issues will persist for longer than we'd like. | Prioritised approach to the required work. Careful planning: Paul Seiler (Unlicensed) is working on this. |