Topic page: brief for designers/developers

Date

21 July 2015

Background

The subject pages that are currently on the mainsite and also on school and faculty sites aren't doing the job well. There are over 120 of them, and many have only three paragraphs of information about the subject at the top, before 'technical' detail about the relevant programme (degree) begins. These three paragraphs aren't enough to engage audiences and outline what Victoria has to offer; and often are not written with a focus on the target audience.

Topics are a new concept on the Victoria website. They are more browseable as a group than the numerous subject pages. The topic pages provide a overview where audiences can learn about an area of interest and what Victoria has to offer. Audiences can drill down to information about the subjects that sit under a topic if they wish to, and can learn about related careers.

Our vision is for topic pages to be Victoria's primary channel for online 'discipline marketing' for the university. A prospective undergraduate student browsing the website will ideally progress from a topic page to a programme page, where they will be able to read about the degree and see what courses they might study.

Topics > Degrees > Courses

New content will be developed for topic pages, which will be visually rich and highly engaging.

Example page

The example Architecture topic page was developed to provide a content perspective that would help the project team and internal stakeholders understand how the concept of grouping subjects under a topic would work.

It is also a very important tool for 'selling' the changed approach to faculty and school content: much of this content will be centralised, and the example topic page demonstates the value of lifting out important content, vastly improving it and making it more discoverable for target audiences.

Status of topic groupings and example page

The manager and senior advisor of the Careers team advised on an approach to careers content that they felt was most appropriate and risk-free. They reviewed and approved the careers content that is in the example topic page.

Nigel, Madeline and the project Reference Group were introduced to the concept of 'Topics' and have reviewed the example page. Chrissi and Paul felt the Reference Group 'endorsed' the approach and the example page. Nigel commented that he liked the use of plain language on the page.

When the topic groupings are finalised (Paul and Sam are working on this), we'll present those groupings and the example page for final approval. Ideally, the page will be presented in a designed format.

Outcomes of design work

• Project team and internal stakeholders can visualise how the concept of grouping subjects under a topic would work.
• Project team and internal stakeholders can understand the concept of a topic page and what it might contain.

Output of design work

A visual solution that shows the layout and approach for a topic page, along with key links (including calls to action and links to related content).

General notes

• The example topic page makes use of three types of 'media' items: embedded video; an image with an associated story; and a slideshow with an associated story. It is envisaged that any of these media items could be inserted at any point on the page to help 'tell the story'.
• At present the page is divided into three sections by tabs, but this isn't a requirement.
• It's important that the current content is retained and presented in the order that it appears on the example page: that will help us to see that the design will work for the content - and also where the content might need adjustment. Suggestions for improving the content are most welcome.
• When developing the example page, a lot of discussion was had about links that took the person off the page. We want to keep them on the page as much as possible, while showing them next steps (eg, enrol, visit programme page), related areas (eg, related topics) and links to related content.