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

Goals, principles and outcomes

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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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Agile approach and mindset

At Bath we apply Agile techniques to the planning, creation, and governance of digital content

Product development

Test

Iteration 1 Iteration 2 Iteration 3

Deliver

Sprint 1 Sprint 2

Deliver

DiscoverTest

DesignDevelop DesignDevelop

Discover

Deliver

DesignDevelop

DiscoverTest

Agile

9

Agile is a mindset, not just a set of tools and processes

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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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What did we do well?

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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What should we have done better?

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

User research now built into the development process

359 content items are currently published, 1254 are in review19

Release iteratively and often

Transition content based on user journeys

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Keep things simple and consistent

http://www.bath.ac.uk/guides/the-quads-student-accommodation/

One user need per content item

Agile isn’t a cure-all

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Lessons learnt

• 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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What would I tell my past self about Agile? "Try it, you’ll thank your future self."

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Q&A

Talk

HELLO@CONTENTBEAR.UK

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